> Why am I willing to offer you money for a promise you wrote or will write a book? Generally, reputation is sufficient check to fraud in situations like this.

> Why am I willing to offer you money for a promise you wrote or will write a book? Generally, reputation is sufficient check to fraud in situations like this. In a simple setup, you may trust the author because they've written many books in the past, and fraud is punishable by law. If the author is new or wants to provide extra assurances, they could release the first few chapters of the book, or in special cases have separate goals for each chapter. In an imaginable more commercialized system, a publishing company might pay the author and advance to write the book, and the handle ransoming the book. As far as the free-rider problem goes, there is probably some issue with that in our current society, but voluntary financing of creative works could still be more economically efficient that the existing copyright regime.