Using the blockchain to protect authors’ manuscripts by giving them a means of defending themselves in the event of a dispute, such is the innovation proposed by the start-up Edith & Nous. Founded in November 2020 by Thomas Vivien, former sales director for France of Editions Taschen, and Valentin Vauchelles, former director of Virgin Megastore bookstores, this company officially launches this system, a first, on Monday, November 29.
A tamper-proof and unalterable timestamp specific to blockchain technology goes, according to Valentin Vauchelles, “Automatically protect each manuscript deposited and allow each author registered on the site to provide proof of the existence of his work on a given date”. The certificate of deposit will be downloadable and updated as the manuscript changes and will serve as proof of prior art, admissible before French courts.
Even if, today, the courts are not encumbered by cases of plagiarism, the use of sending manuscripts by post or email remains ” unreliable “, according to the founders. “Using blockchain is like a seat belt in a car, we are happy to have put it on when we have an accident”, they add.
Ten selected works
Edith & Nous offers authors a monthly subscription of 7.99 euros for the first three months, then 9.99 euros thereafter. So far, they have received 3,000 manuscripts, which they then submit to their three literary advisers. For a proofreading fee of 470 euros, they give the author an opinion in a document of 7 to 8 pages in which they give the strong points, explain what needs to be improved or suggest avenues for partial rewriting of the manuscript. Edit & You also offers the services of a professional proofreader for € 2.40 per 1,000 characters.
These texts will then be offered, according to their genre (fiction, non-fiction, thriller, romance, human sciences, children’s literature, etc.) to 70 publishers, including among the best known Albin Michel, Flammarion, L’Archipel, Michel Lafon, Robert Laffont, Le Cherche Midi or Odile Jacob. The publisher undertakes to pay 500 euros to Edith & Us if he publishes one of his texts. For now, only Les Indécis (304 pages, 18 euros), Alex Daunel’s first novel, has been published by this intermediary by Editions de l’Archipel, but ten books have been selected by publishers. “We filter our offers precisely according to their requests”, underlines Thomas Vivien.
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