Author Publishes First-Ever Novel NFT

Rick Talbot, author and creator of Chainreads.com
Photo of Rick Talbot

Rick Talbot, author and IT professional, has published a new science fiction trilogy, which includes an NFT bundled with every purchase. To facilitate this, the author has simultaneously launched Chainreads.com, an e-commerce site where books can be purchased and NFTs are redeemed (or 'minted'). The trilogy, titled "Acts of Love in Faraway Places", is now available.

With Chainreads.com, the copyright and ownership information is bundled with the NFT. This means that an eBook can be gifted or resold much like a paper book can. The NFT also makes the book independent of a specific bookseller's ecosystem, putting more control back in authors' and readers' hands. To make it easy for anyone to purchase the book, the NFT is optional, which allows a purchase to be made with a credit card, with no crypto wallet required.

More than 1 billion people lack access to a bank account, but many have access to a smartphone. One of these people could write the next great English-language novel. Blockchain and NFTs mean that they can be paid as quickly and easily as if they were next door.

"My goal with this website is to show people how blockchain and NFTs can transform the eBook world. Since most people don't use crypto today, I made the NFT optional. That way, anyone who wants the book can buy using their credit card and then mint the NFT as a second step. The NFT allows them to gift the book to a friend, or even sell it used, just as if it were a physical book," says Rick Talbot, author, and creator of Chainreads. "Using blockchain and NFTs, we can make the book world more transparent and equitable, allow authors to have better control over their work, and remove some of the roadblocks that face authors who live outside of North America."

Chainreads.com was created to demonstrate the potential of NFTs in the eBook publishing field. Rick Talbot is an Information Technology professional, an author, and the creator of Chainreads.com. A whitepaper is available at https://www.chainreads.com/whitepaper/ and the initial publication, a sci-fi trilogy called "Acts of Love in Faraway Places" is now available for purchase (with NFTs) on the site.