Introduction to the Company

 

CAEZIK Crypto (CC) is a groundbreaking publisher whose mission is to introduce the next phase in the electronic delivery of books, particularly science fiction literature by issuing author approved limited edition eBooks on the Ethereum blockchain.

 

CC is a venture of Arc Manor LLC, a publishing house created in 2006 to utilize the latest development in technologies in the book industry. Arc Manor has stayed at the forefront of technological change while developing its portfolio to include industry leading authors such as George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones) and Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game) and Mercedes Lackey who was just names a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

 

Arc Manor’s ongoing mission has been to utilize the latest in technology to bring the best in science fiction and fantasy to the fans at large in various formats. This mission now continues with the move to web-3 and the new ecosystem being created on the back of de-centralized blockchain technologies.

 

Premise

 

The last two decades has seen an incredible shift in the way books are distributed and ultimately consumed by the end user.

 

Despite opposition by major ‘traditional’ publishers, technologies like Print on Demand and eBooks have turned the industry on its head. eBook technology, led by Amazon has revolutionized the industry, where over 35% of all book readership is, in one form or another, done electronically.

 

However, while eBooks have been made extremely rapid inroads into the market there is one aspect of the traditional publishing that eBooks have never been able to replicate: namely that of authenticating individual print runs, or copies of books.

 

Blockchain technology can be used to fulfil that last, but extremely important aspect of book publishing, as the electronic book publishing market matures and settles into its own niche. Current eBook distribution systems where specific copies cannot be tracked, nor, practically speaking, be curtailed from illegal copying (leading to a substantial market in perfect but illegally copied copies) disallowed the existence an eBook collectibles market…until now.

 

We can now create collectible eBook editions by using blockchain technology.

 

 

Market and Opportunity

 

Books are a huge industry. While challenged by emerging venues of entertainment like video games, the book industry has proved extremely resilient with the global book industry size being estimated at over 112 billion dollars.

 

Some of the very technologies that were supposed to challenge it have been incorporated by the market to expand the industry by shifting readership from paper-based books to electronic books (eBooks). Within the US (which is leading this change, pioneered by companies like Amazon) eBooks now account for over 30 percent of all books sold in the country.

 

The current eBook market is built on two formats; Mobi (used primarily by Amazon and its readers) and ePub (used by nearly everyone else). While these technologies have advanced significantly in the last decade, they are unable to replicate one very important aspect of the traditional book market.

 

The traditional book market has a large, extremely vibrant collectibles component. These collectibles may be special issues of a particular title (e.g., leather bound, signed editions, commemorative issues, etc.), or just earlier printings of first editions of books. The market has thrived, because like other collectibles, it is possible to authenticate specific copies of books as belonging to specific runs (first-printing, first-edition, second printing, etc.) or specific attributes (leather, signed, etc.).

 

Unfortunately, neither of the two formats underlying the ebook market has the ability to mimic these aspects. eBooks, regardless of the format, were designed as mass-market distribution in the easiest way possible and because the technologies have become very widespread it is not easy to replace them. Millions of electronic readers have been sold worldwide, which depend on the availability of books in Mobi or ePub formats.

 

Current eBook technology makes it impossible to prevent copies that are identical to the original. Hence there is no such thing as a traditional ‘print-run’ or ‘first-printing’ or even high-end limited editions of books (that thrive in the paper market) and thus, no collectibles market in eBooks. In a way it has become a disposable market for book.

 

The collectibles market (as a whole) is in nearly $375 billion globally and is growing at approximately 7% per year with an expected market size of over $520 billion by 2028. But because of the constraints above, eBooks has never been able to develop a collectible market.

 

Given the popularity, longevity and expanding size of the overall collectibles market and the long-established thriving paper book collectibles market, we feel that there is a huge opportunity to create an electronically driven eBook collectibles market if we can overcome the constrains holding us back. Historical technologies have not allowed this to happen, but we are at a point where new blockchain technologies make it possible and CC is poised to take advantage of this latest opportunity.

 

Solution

 

Arc Manor, being both at the forefront of the technological changes reshaping the publishing industry and having published some of the best names in the science fiction and fantasy field (including the legendary writer, Robert A. Heinlein, the author of Starship Troopers) sees a unique opportunity to create a collectibles eBook market using blockchain technology.

The problem eBooks have faced in becoming collectibles has been the previously inability to give a unique signature to particular copies of the eBooks. However, blockchain technology now allows this to happen which presents a unique opportunity to create collectible eBooks.

 

The NFT collectibles market is fast becoming a part of the enormous collectibles’ ecosystem, growing exponentially over the last couple of years to an estimated current value of approximately $40 billion. People like to collect unique items, and digital delivery of products facilitates commerce significantly feeding a rapid growth in the industry. This is expected to continue as blockchain technology evolves and more and more ‘regular’ consumers become aware of the technology and its usage moves into the mainstream from the periphery.

 

This also provides a solution to the problem of not being able to create unique units of eBooks for eBooks to participate in the collectibles market.

 

Arc Manor, through CC, is merging Blockchain technology with eBook technology to create unique, collectible editions of eBooks, each with a unique signature. This signature will be carried by the whole eBook or an element of the eBook (for example, a unique cover, with an unlockable text file which can then be imported into standard eBook reading devices like the Kindle and Nook).

 

There are three key factors to a successful collectable eBook market residing on blockchain technology:

 

1. Access to content. Books are copyrighted and may not be published without an agreement with the author typically through the author’s literary agent.

 

2. Something that can be made unique and assignable to specific buyers through blockchain technology. This can be the whole book, or a portion of a book. But it has to have both visual appeal and the ability for buyers to purchase them in a unique fashion.

 

3. Since this is an eBook, the buyer must have the ability to read the eBook. Nearly all reading devices, as mentioned above, read books in one of two technical formats; ePub and/or Mobi. A few readers will read books in PDF format on computers or tablets, etc. It is essential to have an automated process to deliver the eBook in an readable format to the buyer of the collectible.

 

1. Access to material. CC, through it’s parent company, Arc Manor, has access to eBooks of a multitude of prominent authors, many of whom have had New York Times bestsellers. Arc Manor, though one of it’s imprints or magazine has published authors as prominent as George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Mercedes Lackey (Valdemar series), and Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan series).

 

2. Unique, transferable blockchain asset. Each eBook will have a set number of copies (like limited numbered editions in the paper market). For example, CC may issue an NFT edition of Robert A. Heinlein’s book, The Pursuit of the Pankera. Then only a limited number of those copies will ever be released, and that number will be determined before the first drop (for the first copy of the book is made. For example, CC may announce that 500 copies of the eBook The Pursuit of the Pankera will be published and announce the date of the first set of books to be dropped. That means that only 500 copies of that book in that format will ever be published by CC. Moreover, each copy will be assigned a slightly different cover and a unique number (1-500) to designate the unique number of that particular copy. This will ensure that every copy of the book published through this process is unique and one-of-a-kind. There will only ever be ONE copy of the The Pursuit of the Pankera 1 of 500 issued by CC. Similarly only one copy will ever exist for number 2 of 500, and so on.

 

This will be done by minting a unique NFT for each of the 500 copies issued. Each unique NFT will have a clear number (1 of 500, 2 of 500, 3 of 500, etc.) and will also have a slightly differently shaded unique cover border. The NFT will also include a special password to unlock further content which is what will address the third major requirement of this release.

 

3. Readable eBook. The purchase of each unique eBook NFT as described above will also unlock a fully readable eBook. The eBook will be offered in various formats so that readers may be able to upload the eBook to the reading device of their choice (Kindle, Nook, etc.). In nearly all cases these will also be accompanied by unique material, unique to the NFT limited edition of the eBook.

 

CC will use the unlockable mechanism to complete the product since currently, the most popular blockchain platforms like Polygon, Solana and Ethereum do not lend themselves to having a whole book reside as an NFT on the blockchain (though we fully expect this to change as these technologies develop). Moreover, using the tired and tested unlockable technology allows us to ensure that we can easily provide eBooks in various, popular formats.

 

Eventually Arc Manor sees this technology to have the potential to revolutionize the publishing industry further by the use of smart contracts. Currently authors are totally dependent on the accounting practices and statements offered by publishers which form the basis for their royalty basis. This has led to huge abuses in the industry where authors are either under-paid or not paid at all despite the publisher making significant sales of the books.

 

As a publisher we are well aware of the potential for this type of abuse and also, sadly, admit that many publishers have indulged in unsavory practices that have deprived writers of their fair share of profits.

 

Smart contracts have the potential to change all that by incorporating direct payments to the artist (writer) based on the contract. While we are still some ways away from the adoption of such technology on a more widespread basis, the advantageous of having independently acting (smart) contracts like this cannot be understated. Because of this, we believe it is only a matter of time before such contracts start getting employed for the eBook industry.

 

CC then proposes two solutions, one immediate, and one longer term for eBooks

 

1. Use the existing blockchain technology to create collectible editions of eBooks

2. Migration to the utilizating the emerging blockchain technology to create smart contracts directly with the author for eBooks.

 

Given the overall potential of how large this market may become, there is an exponential potential for profit growth in any initial investment made on the early releases of these NFT enabled eBooks and CC invites you to partner with us to create a whole new category of NFT enabled collectible eBooks.