NiftyLit, An NFT Book Publishing Firm

NiftyLit is a new San Francisco-based book publishing firm that has published the first-ever Literary NFT. In yet another first for the NFT sector, just like the name suggests, a Literary NFT is a distinct digital asset that connects to a piece of literature. What is NiftyLit and what does Literary NFT entail?

The company is involved in the publishing of a new literary magazine that contains lots of literary works exclusively as unlockable content that is linked to NFTs. More essentially, the NFT book publishing firm promises to offer its writers most of the revenue from the NFT sales. Moreover, the firm desires to establish a more “equitable system for publishing, community engagement, and compensation for writers and artists.”

Based on its official website:

“NiftyLit is a group of literary enthusiasts who believe in the power of technology to put creative control back in the hands of artists.”

The traditional publishing sector is quite notorious for its poor compensation for content creators and authors. In most cases, publishers offer ‘exposure’ as the main reward. NiftyLit strives to resolve this problem by giving over 50% of net Literary NFT revenues from the primary and secondary sales to the authors.

NiftyLit co-founder and CEO, Jo Unruh, stated:

“We built NiftyLit because we fundamentally believe in the transformative power of art and that writers and artists deserve to be paid for their work. We’re proud to support emerging writers from underrepresented, underserved, and marginalized communities.”

The company says that it aims to ensure that publishing becomes an equitable space with its literary NFTs.

How Does NiftyLit Operate?

This platform works straightforwardly, just like most curated NFT platforms. The writers can submit their poetry, short stories, and non-fiction to NiftyLit. Then, the platform mints the chosen works as NFTs along with original artwork.

For the first 30 days, the works will be accessible for free on the website. After that, these will be available as unlockable content to the NFT holders. In the future, the NFT holders can also become part of author interviews, virtual readings, and other community-building activities.

Editor-in-Chief of NiftyLit, Katie Zeigler, commented:

“The short stories, poems, and nonfiction essays that we’ll be publishing in our first few issues are incredible, and represent a diverse array of voices.”

NiftyLit’s First Literary NFT

“The Buddha” is notably NiftyLit’s first Literary NFT. The firm recently released the NFT on OpenSea. It entails a fictional short story by acclaimed San Francisco playwright Paul G Heller. It was also accompanied by original artwork by Meryl Quinn Kernell.

The Buddha is set in a San Francisco private school where a ‘mysterious’ new student, The Buddha, joins. Buddha’s refusal to adhere to any rules and regulations influences the other students, and that breaks the “social structures and allegiances”.

All things are taken into context, NiftyLit and its Literary NFTs appear like a great initiative to fairly compensate the writers and artists. However, it remains to be seen how the general reading community will react to the new publishing platform. Some backlash is expected.