Reflection on a new relationship between writers & readers in web3

I got into crypto in 2017 because my ex-boyfriend was an Ethereum miner. Out of curiosity, I started to step into this mysterious world to study, invest and run experiments (thanks ex!).

Web3 frens always say 2020 was the year of DeFi, 2021 was the year of NFTs and 2022 is the year of DAO. I went with a flow and dived deep into cryptocurrency, purchasing NFTs and participating in DAOs in my spare time.

Early in 2022, I discovered one of my favourite modern writers Mark Manson was about to issue The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck NFTs on the BookCoin platform . It made history for that was the first time a major bestseller to give an attempt in web3. By minting his The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck NFTs , readers get access to an unreleased chapter, join his private Zero Fucks Club and attend Subtle Art School for free.

In a traditional world, there is always an invisible wall between readers and writers. Readers can purchase writers’ works or follow them on social media but rarely be able to prove their loyalty, engage with other readers on a large scale, interact with writers or participate in their creative process (don’t learn from this episode from Inside No.9!).

Luckily enough, web3 gave readers a chance to form a central community to bond with like-minded fans and build relationships with their favourite content creators.

In Mark Manson’s club, I had the opportunity to ask him questions face to face (via zoom) and saw him actively appear on the private Discord channel to answer questions from readers.

As a content creator myself, I am running a 100 True Fan experiment by hosting an NFT-gated community where paid readers can get access to my private study notes, learn my creation process and have a 1:1 chat with me every month.

What’s more, I have done some research in the web3 space on the future relationship between content creators and readers. Projects like Story DAO , Fire Lily DAO , Story Quest at NFT NYC and Storyverse empowered readers and community members to co-create or contribute to stories with established and emerging writers, and to co-own the story on the blockchain.

Recently, I was at a Twitter Space run by BookCoin featuring Sitka World to discuss #BookNFTs and opportunities for readers and content creators in web3 . I love the vision shared by Sitka World founders that they want to become the go-to network for creative writers in web3. It also sparked my interests in the new way on co-creation and building a new relationship between readers and writers. My takeaways are:

• Web3 will empower authors to skip the line of the gated traditional publishing world and truly own and distribute content with the help of the community.
• BookNFT serves as a tool to make a real connection between authors and readers by offering exclusive incentives such as private community and unreleased content.
• Fans get a chance to participate in authors’ creative process and gain royalty and can resell their stake in a project.

Packy McCormick published an article on “The Cooperation Economy” . The core idea is a collection of like-minded people with like-minded goals can work together to make progress towards those goals beyond typical employment contracts (DAOs). People have the freedom to fluidly move between projects and organisations, contributing their skills wherever they fit.

The significant impact of this Cooperation Economy is on the publishing and media industries because their products and business models are relatively homogeneous. We are seeing many creators have already broken free from the traditional media and build their own brands and self-publishing/distribution channels based on technology and community support.

While I was about to publish this article, I came across an exciting project Bored & Dangerous – the first novel set inside of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and it’s the first true novel that spun out of Web3. NFTs aren’t just expensive downloadable JPEGs but a hammer to smash the traditional content creation process and pave the way to a new era of human creativity.

BAYC leveraged DAO structure, a new way of collaboration that brings together project financing, community management and value sharing. It empowers community members who are passionate about storytelling to co-create a novel and build the custom Web3 e-reader experience for members to interact with the book.

We are transitioning from an era of centralized, bureaucratic value-creating corporations to an era of decentralized, permissionless value-creating networks. There is no better timing than now to participate in the creator economy and form a niche community to generate values ​​and achieve common goals.

I’m on this journey and I’ll see y’all down the road!