Inspirational Indie Author Interview #1: Understanding Blockchain for Authors

Welcome to AskALLi, the self-publishing advice broadcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors. This week it's our monthly IndieVoices' self-publishing salon with interviews conducted by ALLi Managing Editor Howard Lovy and updates from News Editor Dan Holloway. Howard Lovy has been a journalist for more than 30 years, and has spent the last five years amplifying the voices of independent publishers and authors. He works with authors as a "book doctor" to prepare their work to be published. Howard is also a freelance business and technology writer. Find Howard on LinkedIn and Twitter. Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines Earlier this year he competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is available on Kindle This Month's IndieVoices Each month on IndieVoices, I'm going to take a theme of interest to indie authors and talk to experts to help us understand it. Today, I'm going to discuss something that everybody is talking about, but very few people actually understand. Blockchain. My guests will be Josef Marc, CEO of a company called Publica, which is designing a blockchain system for indie authors, Sukhi Jutla, who is researching Blockchain for the Alliance, and Dan Holloway with the news. Topics discussed this week include: Introducing IndieVoices, a new broadcast from ALLi. Blockchain is something that everybody talks about, but few really understand. Introducing Josef Marc of Publica. What is the problem that Blockchain is solving for writers? You don't subscribe to a service, you subscribe to an author. Cryptocurrency for authors. What is the five-year plan for Publica? Introducing author Sukhi Jutla, who also has a banking background. She's writing a white paper on blockchain for authors Blockchain removes the middleman and gives authors more-direct access to readers. Blockchain White Paper will be released in April at the London Book Fair. Introducing Dan Holloway, ALLi's news editor. Most exciting thing about blockchain is control of rights management. At minute 17, Howard's cat, Story, contributes a couple of "meows." People are focusing on payments, but blockchain has the potential to be even more disruptive. Bitcoin and blockchain are not synonymous. Blockchain crosses national boundaries. Wordpress has a new podcast plugin that's exciting to writers. What is Geoblocking? Howard says a bad word and is "bleeped" out by an overzealous podcast producer. Information wants to be free, except when money is to be made.