When Sheila Dohmann talks about the future of technology, she does not begin with blockchain, artificial intelligence or digital ownership. Instead, she starts with something much simpler: the pace of change itself.
“I don’t even think things can trend anymore,” she says. “Technology is so fast, we’re not even going to have trends. If it’s a trend, it’s for one day, right? Then the next thing is released and there’s a new platform to do it better.”
It is a striking observation from the Chief Marketing Officer of Book.io and Stuff.io, companies that have spent the past four years building technology designed to change how books, music and film are owned, distributed and protected. Yet even for a business built around innovation, Dohmann believes the greatest competitive advantage today is not predicting the next trend but remaining flexible enough to adapt as entire industries shift beneath your feet.
That philosophy has already shaped Book.io’s own journey.
Decentalised Digital Books
Originally established around decentralised digital books, the company developed a proprietary technology known as a Decentralised Encrypted Asset, or DEA, which encrypts and distributes digital content across decentralised storage rather than leaving complete files vulnerable to piracy.
“It is a brand new file type,” Dohmann explains. “It lives on the blockchain, but it is shattered into millions of pieces, and every one of those pieces is encrypted with its own key.”
Rather than reconstructing an entire book or film, the technology only assembles what the reader or viewer is consuming at that precise moment.
“If Stephen Hawking came back from the dead and was the smartest man alive, he’d be a fan or indeed inventor of this encryption and decentralisation. It’s where the reader or consumer of your art gets one page of your book, one second of your song, or one second of your movie.”
The result, she believes, is one of the strongest anti-piracy solutions currently available while preserving the user experience readers expect.
The original attraction of Web3 for creators extended beyond security. It also promised a fairer economic model.
Fairer Royalty Payments for Creatives
Unlike many traditional publishing or music contracts, Book.io returns 70 per cent of an initial sale to creators, while secondary sales continue generating royalties every time an asset changes hands.
“I always call it taco money,” she laughs. “It’s just going to continuously make money for you. Just let it happen.”
That concept of ongoing royalties remains unfamiliar to many creators, particularly authors, because conventional publishing rarely allows books to generate income after the first sale. Blockchain changes that equation by making genuine secondary ownership possible.
Yet Dohmann is refreshingly honest about the realities of today’s market.
“We would love it not to affect us, but it does.”
Like many Web3 companies, Book.io has experienced slower creator adoption as cryptocurrency markets have cooled. She believes too many participants continue viewing digital assets primarily as investments rather than cultural products.
“I want your music because I want your music,” she says. “I want to read your book. I don’t care what Solana is priced at.”
Rather than waiting for markets to recover, the company chose to pivot: “We are a proper company, not a project.”
Listening carefully to customers led the business in an unexpected direction. While music and film creators expressed concern about artificial intelligence, it was the publishing industry that proved most vocal.
“Everybody was going crazy. Is my book being used to train large language models? Are people creating AI books and we don’t even know it?”
Building through AI
Instead of resisting AI, Book.io began building tools around it.
One of those products, Galley Forecast, allows authors to submit manuscripts to AI reader agents that analyse pacing, plot, structure and likely audience response before publication.
“They’re their own personalities,” Dohmann explains. “They might be an engineer who’s never read a romance book in their life. They might be positioned as a fourteen year old girl who love romance. They have to read your book and give you their honest opinion.”
Unlike friends or advance readers who may soften criticism, the AI agents offer blunt assessments.
“Sometimes humans are too nice.”
The system identifies where readers may abandon a manuscript, where plotlines disappear unexpectedly and even which sections might provide stronger marketing hooks.
One author, she recalls, discovered an abandoned subplot that had unintentionally vanished halfway through the novel: “He said, ‘I completely forgot I’d started that plot line.'”
The project also reflects Dohmann’s broader view of AI. Rather than replacing creativity, she believes intelligent tools should remove repetitive work so creators can spend more time creating.
“How do we save their time? Because we want these people to keep writing books, making music and making films.”
That willingness to evolve now extends well beyond blockchain publishing. Book.io has secured enterprise partnerships with major publishing organisations, although confidentiality agreements prevent Dohmann discussing details. The company has also integrated millions of print titles through distribution partnerships while continuing to explore digital ownership across books, music and film.
Listening
The common thread is not blockchain for blockchain’s sake but solving practical problems: “We are listening.”
That phrase recurs throughout the conversation. Listening to creators. Listening to publishers. Listening to where industries are moving rather than where they have been.
It also shapes her advice to creators navigating an increasingly complex technological landscape.
“I would say surround yourself with two things.”
The first is your own creative community. The second is people working at the leading edge of technology.
Remain only among creators, she warns, and you risk becoming resistant to technological change. Immerse yourself exclusively in technology and you risk losing touch with culture and the audiences you ultimately serve.
“We need to keep our culture going. We need to stay human. We need to continue knowledge sharing and culture sharing.”
That balance between technology and creativity perhaps explains why Book.io continues expanding while many businesses struggle to decide whether AI represents opportunity or threat.
For Dohmann, it is simply another chapter in a constantly evolving story.
“If you’re trending,” she says, “you’re already behind, because you’re not creating the next thing.”
In an industry where today’s breakthrough quickly becomes tomorrow’s standard, that may prove the most valuable lesson of all.
