In this way the Pearson publishing house hopes to be able to reduce the losses deriving from the thriving market for used university books. Will the students be happy?
American publisher Pearson will publish some of its university text books in NFT format . The publisher will give students the opportunity to freely resell their digital textbooks. Whenever an NFT of his books is sold, the publisher will take a small percentage of the sale price.
In this way the publisher hopes to be able to start earning money from the used university books market as well, something that is not possible for him with traditional books in physical format.
“In the analog world, a Pearson school book is resold on average up to seven times,” explains the publisher. “Our publishing house takes part exclusively in the first sale. Moving into the digital market will allow us to decrease secondary market losses, blockchain technology and NFTs will allow us to take part in every single sale of our books “.
University books cost a lot everywhere, and even Italian university students know it very well. But often in the US, textbooks can cost up to several hundred dollars. Hence the popularity of the used book market: on the one hand, students can re-enter their initial expenses, on the other hand many students do not have the interest or the ability to pay the full price of each book and are therefore more than happy to buy them used, saving in some cases over 50% on the cover price.