RE: WritCoin - Creative Proof of Brain
This is an interesting idea, but it seems to be limited to publishers that might want to publish anthologies. Multi-author anthologies don't do as well as single-author works, so I would not expect publishers to jump on this. However, if they can see the long-term value of nurturing writing talent, then they might.
One thing publishers are looking for is writers with a solid platform. That means they are interested in writers who can network and build an audience. It isn't just writing ability any more. In fact, some of the most popular works published today show little in the way of quality of writing standards (ever try reading "Fifty Shades of Grey?"). Publishers want sell-able manuscripts, and that really has little to do with quality.
Like banking, the publishing industry is slow to change. How long did it take them to get on board with the idea of e-books? Almost a decade. Then they priced them so high that readers were better off just buying a paperback. Many publishers still price their e-books near the price of their print books. That's because they don't really want to sell the e-book.
An SMT for writers might go over well with publishers if they can see a way to influence the path of the writing. They see themselves as the purveyors of talent. They see themselves as bringing talent and readers together, so an SMT that is geared toward facilitating that process would be much more valuable. Although, I do like the idea of using the SMT to wade out spammers, scammers, and plagiarists.
On a final note, I'd like to see something like this for indie publishers. This is the market I think is more likely to get on board with something like this, as opposed to traditional publishing houses. If you can get Hugh Howey and Joanna Penn on board, all the other self-published authors will jump in.
I completely understand what you're saying here but single-author works, i.e. collections of short stories or poems, don't have as stringent first publishing rights, as I understand it. If a publisher decides to print a collection, they are less concerned about if it has been previously published online, whereas every journal/anthology I've looked at recently specifies FPR. This idea is very much trying to bring publicity to steemit as well as bringing second-life to stories/poems people may have published here. Anthologies would promote the platform and also build a higher appreciation of creative writing among the higher-ups as the more cynical 'investment' minded people would see that these fields are bringing attention to steemit. In regards to the publishing houses, yes you raise a valid point some type of incentive for them needs to be part of it. I'm quite decent at drumming up PR storm when I get my head in the game 😉
Also, if this idea were to get developed, it is partly to make some type of mechanism whereby creative writing works can simply be rewarded proportionally higher than they seem to be now. Payout-wise, creative writing posts can be abysmal here on steemit and not proportional to the quality of the writing, as you point out happens in the wider world of writing also.
Interesting point, although it wouldn't bring as much mainstream attention. But there is no reason why loads of different paths shouldn't be explored equally, it's an idea well worth thinking about. Thanks for your insightful and valuable comment @blockurator :-)
I like the way you're thinking about this, actually. It's certainly a problem looking for a solution. I'd definitely agree with that. I'm wracking my brains trying to figure out what it would look like, practically.
I've thought about this a bit more and I could see how something like this could work. If the focus is on magazines, journals, and other publications that want first publishing rights, there could be a way to incentivize these publishers to give up this right in an exclusive, limited way using an SMT. I see it having some similar characteristics of resources already on the market, but not on a blockchain.
There are other submission tracking services out there, but to keep this simple, I'll use these two to illustrate how you can incentive the submission process as well as approvals and rejections and, to top it off, further incentivize publishers to allow a submission to be published on Steemit while it awaits publication in print.
Here's how it could work:
The biggest drawback I see to this is, after posting to Steemit, you can't stop some other publisher from stealing the content and republishing it elsewhere. Otherwise, I see built-in incentives for publishers and writers with this kind of system.
What do you think?
Give me a few days to properly assess/digest all of the ideas you've put forth here blockurator. I'm away from home this weekend so I'm not gonna have much spare time for computer/internet :-)