Cryptocurrency and ebooks [ebook, bukio]

This article by @bree1042 is part of a creative blockchain investigation series. Learn more about the #dappexplorer project here.

For this month's #dappexplorer exercise, I'd like to explore https://buk.io/. It's an ebook contents platform that you can use on Steemit or any other SNS.

Ebooks are for independent writers.

Writing a book and becoming an author has become relatively easy nowadays thanks to ebooks. You don't need big publishing companies or agencies, and self-publishing has never been easier. You can publish a book in your own home office if you have manuscript and a cover image. But publishing ebooks is one thing and selling them is quite another.

As a soon-to-be ebook author, I tried to find a better way to promote ebooks. Unlike western countries, where Amazon Kindle has many avid ebook readers, in Korea ebook market is said to be one hundredth of paper book market. They say (paper book) publishing market is dwindling, but there is hardly a "market" to dwindle for ebooks in Korea.

For renowned writers it doesn't matter. Their books sell like hotcakes both in print and in ebook. The problem lies with independent writers, who don't have big publishing companies or agencies to invest and advertise their books on stores and on media, even though their books are good.

So, in a world where people don't read any more (ebooks or not) or only read bestsellers from big publishing companies, how could an independent writer like me survive? How can you promote your ebook?

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Promote your ebooks using SNS

Probably the best and the cheapest way to promote your ebooks is using SNS. And the best way to persuade people to buy the book is to show them interesting excerpts. You post about your new ebook, write reviews about it, hoping it goes viral and thousands of people will share the contents, and ultimately it'll help selling the book.

Buk.io, from excerpts to buying books

I found bukio, ebook contents platform, very helpful to promote ebooks for independent writers. Since my ebook has not published yet, I'd like to explore one of free ebooks to showcase bukio

What is it to live? As long as we're not dead, it's safe to say that we're living. We all do something for a living. But what does living mean to you? Here's what Pollyanna suggests.:

"Oh, but Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, you haven't left me any time at all just to—to live." "To live, child! What do you mean? As if you weren't living all the time!" "Oh, of course I'd be BREATHING all the time I was doing those things, Aunt Polly, but I wouldn't be living. You breathe all the time you're asleep, but you aren't living. I mean living—doing the things you want to do: playing outdoors, reading (to myself, of course), climbing hills , talking to Mr. Tom in the garden, and Nancy, and finding out all about the houses and the people and everything everywhere all through the perfectly lovely streets I came through yesterday. That's what I call living, Aunt Polly. Just breathing isn't living!"

Porter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman), Pollyanna, Gutenberg Edition

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When you find an interesting excerpt while reading a review or any SNS posting, you can click it. It'll lead to the ebook and show you a little sneak peek around the excerpt. This is very important feature. Big online book stores offer a little sneak peek, but they only show the first few pages with the title and copyright, not in the middle of it where the actions are. If you can read a few paragraphs that actually interest you, it'll be a lot more helpful to decide whether you buy that book or not.

If you feel interested in it and want to keep reading it, it'll lead to checkout page, where you can buy the ebook with credit card, paypal, Steem or Steem dollar. It's easy to share the contents and easy to promote. They don't even need Kindle or any ebook reading device.

For independent writers

If you're writers, poets or novelists writing on Steemit, you're probably interested in publishing your own ebooks someday. You can earn Cryptocurrency writing on Steemit, promote your ebooks on SNS and buy them with Cryptocurrency using bukio.

Ebooks definitely have opened a new chapter for both writers and readers. I believe Blockchain and Cryptocurrency are now opening yet another chapter for especially independent writers.

This post was authored by @bree1042, a steward of the sndbox incubator. Learn more, follow @bree1042 or begin a conversation in the comment section below.

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