One of the small strokes in his marketing campaign for Stick’s Masterpiece was accepting bitcoin for payments. So far, the author has sold about eight books to buyers using bitcoin – three to Canada, two to Hawaii, two to Utah and one to Wisconsin. The figure that represents about 8% of his total sales.
The author of both masterpieces had recently moved to Costa Rica, reinvented himself as a self-published author, sold his family’s house and started his life from the beginning. Hanson quite sure that one day will be released his first children’s book on alternative currency. He explains that it could seems like that: “ Kids are playing at the playground and realize that in order to share different toys, they can use candy tickets as a medium of exchange.Fred convinces the other kids at the playground that he’ll fairly enforce all the transactions to make sure there is no fraud, [but] mysteriously the price of candy inches upward, while Fred’s gut inches outward“.
How the journey begins…
First Hanson`s acquaintance with alternative currency took place in 2009 when he picked up a copy of Ron Paul’s best-seller End the Fed. He read the first few pages and never finished. But, the book did direct Hanson to the economic resource mises.org, Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action and eventually the bitcoin movement.
Hanson told his story to CoinDesk: ““I immediately recognized it’s potential as a possible solution for alternative rute. I entered bitcoin community, strating from being volunteer, by then met with bitcoin developer Mike Hearnat at the press center for Bitcoin.org and just used the most opportunities I could, jumped into the field”. As the author mentioned in his interview, for him it was a whole journey to alternative currency movement.
Strange trio
Hanson may not have been applied for a career in PR, hence he continued to pursue writing and eventually found a way to express his love of prose and alternative currency.
Today, he chooses to use bitcoin as a self-publisher to circumvent corrupt banking, capitalize on what he considers a great investment and because it is cheaper than mainstream options like PayPal. Hanson said: “I like the idea of being part of something greater than just myself. Joining the bitcoin community gave me understanding of tremendous power of movement, that in general can improve this world once and forever. Besides believing that bitcoin will grow tremendously in value, I believe it is the right moral investment for me to make as well.”
Hanson, in turn, uses the savings from bitcoin purchases to offer bitcoin customers a 5% discount. But, while he’s connected with buyers, Hanson laments that the number of children’s book authors accepting bitcoin is thin.
“It`s a strange and at the same time exciting trio: Bitcoin, children’s books and open publishing area” says Hanson.
The next chapter
Hanson admited that he was hoping bitcoin would give his second career extra exposure via word of mouth. However, he says he’s more enamored with the idea of moving the currency forward than the monetary benefits. “I wanted to give bitcoiners one more thing to mention when explaining bitcoin to their friends,” Hanson said. “‘Oh, yeah, you like that awesome children’s book? I bought that with bitcoin. See, I told you it’s real.’”
As for the possibility of failure, that’s a reality Hanson has already come to terms with. “I think this world would be a far better place if more people did what they believed mattered instead of what they believed might give them security,” he said. ”If I fail, I fail in glory.” Publication source Coindesk