Curios is a relatively new platform through which people can directly purchase content from creators. Content includes ebooks, audiobooks, music, membership, and much more.
I am forever trying tools that can help me cut out the middleman and save hassle in general, so when I first heard about Curios about a year ago, I tried them. It was in its very early stages. And at the time, my big question was “Can I even consistently produce books?” So, I stopped looking into it.
Recently, I tried again, because production isn’t the main bottleneck anymore. (“Trying,” here, simply means that I uploaded one of my books to Curios and looked around from the consumer side. No fancy testing or anything like that.)
So, Log Me Tender is on Curios: https://www.curios.com/c/VE5ZAN
I really like the idea behind Curios. The affiliate program that they have now sounds really great, because it’s so in alignment with my preference. (If someone spreads the word about my book, they get a cut–a way bigger cut than what they get from most mainstream affiliate programs. Meanwhile, I get free marketing. Win win.)
Also (although I don’t understand all the technical details), they use blockchain. So, people who purchase things can verifiably own files, as opposed to renting the files as is the case with most mainstream retailers. With blockchain, there would also be no need to wonder “is everything being properly tracked or what?”
That said, I am not going to use Curios actively–yet. One of the reasons Amazon is so successful is that their categories are marvelously granular. They don’t just sell books or other creative projects–they know what soap I like, which spices I use for cooking, and my clothing size. As a user, I mostly don’t have to see anything I don’t want to see. Even the ads I see on Amazon aren’t completely unrelated to me.
Meanwhile, on Curios (for now), I am seeing books that I will simply never read, because like all readers, I have my reading preferences. There is a lot of clutter. Some of those books have covers that I absolutely do not want to see, and that’s not the creator’s fault–it’s simply that it’s not my aesthetic preference. There are mainstream US cover trends that are supposed to sell, and I run in the opposite direction every time. So, visiting Curios, for now, feels no different from visiting Instagram.
I plan to check where Curios is headed, every year or so.