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.

• Duotrope is a directory where publications have a listing and writers can join to find markets to submit to and track their submissions. I've used it in the past and it's quite useful. It isn't free, but they have a free trial.
• Submittable is another submission tracking service, but organizations pay for the privilege of being able to receive submissions on the platform and make approval/rejection decisions on the platform itself.

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 publication gets a free listing (this could work for contests too). They sign up for the platform giving submission guidelines and contacts for editors who will review submissions, etc. This is a public-facing forum where anyone can see the markets, but they can't submit to them through the platform unless they join.
• Writers can sign up for free and use the service to find markets, submit to markets, track their submissions, and rate markets, off of which, except sending submissions, can be done on Duotrope. If a writer finds a market they want to submit to, they can send their submission to the market and the publication will either approve or reject from inside of the platform, just like with Submittable. All of this will take place behind a secure wall. It isn't public.
• You could even employ a content auction. A writer posts something they want published and paying markets can bid on it. The winning bidder pays for the work in tokens. As soon as the auction is won, the content and the tokens exchange hands by an executable smart contract.
• For each of these tasks, writers and publications can be rewarded on the platform. Publications earn tokens for listing on the platform. They can also earn tokens when they review submissions and when they approve and reject submissions. Possibly, you could even allow them to rate writers on how easy they are to work with, their writing style and ability, etc. They'll earn tokens for those ratings. There could even be public comments on profiles, writer and publication, for which tokens are earned. Maybe the platform itself even has a forum where interaction is rewarded with tokens.
• Here's the best part. When a writer submits something for publication and the editor approves it, the editor/publication is given an option to allow that content to be published on the writer's Steemit blog while awaiting publication in print. They can decline this and, if so, will only receive rewards earned for the submission process, but if they allow the content to be published, they can earn tokens for that allowance. The writer agrees not to take the piece anywhere else. It can only be published on their Steemit blog with a notice saying first rights were published by XXXXX Publication and a link to their website. This posting is automatic and irreversible as soon as the publisher agrees to allow the piece to be published.

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?