Market and trends
1. Commercial context
The market shows that the number of authors and the volume of output are growing, and competition for attention is becoming tougher — therefore writers need platforms that provide distribution, engagement, and monetization, not just “publishing text.” According to Bowker, the number of self-published ISBN titles grew by 7.2% in 2023 and exceeded 2.6 million, and the sector has more than doubled its output over the past decade — this is a direct indicator of growth in independent authors and content.
At the same time, brands are increasingly buying attention through creators: IAB projects creator ad spend in the U.S. at $37 billion in 2025 (+26% YoY), confirming the shift of marketing toward creator platforms and communities. And as a result, demand for promotion tools is growing: Substack reports 5+ million paid subscriptions in 2025, showing that authors are looking for channels of direct access to an audience and a sustainable revenue model.
The market is specifically discussing “overproduction of books,” where the key driver is self-publishing and digital platforms: “there are more books than ever,” and authors increasingly have to do marketing themselves.
2. Why authors need a promotion platform
When output grows to millions of titles, the main pain point is discoverability: even good books “sink,” and promotion shifts to the author and the community. This is explicitly described as a consequence of the self-publishing boom.
In parallel, the “author as creator” layer is growing: author monetization and subscription platforms are expanding, and investors confirm this with metrics (for example, Substack — 5M+ paid subscriptions in 2025 per Axios). This is a signal that authors need tools for distribution + community + monetization.
3. How this connects to HERO2QUEST
The market is overheated by content volume: authors need not just an “NFT object,” but an engagement and distribution mechanism that turns a story into a game/progress/community.
HERO2QUEST provides exactly that: a quest format + a social showcase + provable progress, which solves discovery through UGC and retention, not through a one-time “drop.”
4. Competitive landscape
NFT books / ownership marketplaces Focus: “sell/buy a digital book as an NFT,” collections, limited editions. Limitation: often this is about content distribution, not about gameplay, progression, and provable learning.
Interactive story platforms / fanfiction communities Focus: reading, branching, subscriptions/donations. Limitation: progress is usually not provable, and the economy and “ownership” are platform-based, not on-chain.
Learn-to-Earn / gamified learning Focus: tasks + badges/points. Limitation: often centralized; the provability and portability of achievements between worlds/authors is weak.
5. How HERO2QUEST is different
Not an “NFT book,” but a Book-to-Quest network HERO2QUEST does not simply tokenize a book. It converts a narrative into a quest graph: missions, conditions, rarities, mission chains.
Proof-first gameplay: progress = an on-chain fact Key actions (Crafted / QuestCompleted / LootClaimed) are recorded by the contract and can be verified via tx/event. This turns “I completed it” into an objective artifact, not a post/screenshot.
Serverless on-chain logic (not a “platform with an API”) Quest mechanics, condition checks, crafting, and rewards are executed by Soroban contracts. This radically reduces the “trust me” layer and makes the project closer to public infrastructure than a typical game.
Social distribution driven by facts, not marketing UGC on X is built from on-chain facts: tx/proof → discussion of builds as verifiable artifacts. This increases conversion from “saw it → joined → performed an on-chain action.”
6. The value the project provides to the market
For writers / fanfiction authors
A new packaging format: a story as a mission system (virality and retention are higher than with “text”).
Monetization: rewards/access/collecting + a “community economy” around quests (without dependence on a single center).
For fan artists / creators
Assets become in-game items/rewards/crafting components — i.e., they plug into the economy, rather than being sold only as images.
For players
A clear “meta-progression”: hero crafting, items, unlocking new missions.
Verifiable achievements and portability of progress (within a network of quests/authors).
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