Orillia author Rick Talbot is looking to the future of book publishing.
The Toronto-born IT professional recently published a new science fiction trilogy, Faraway Places.
“I’ve been writing for a long time,” Talbot said. “I wanted to write something fun. I love sci-fi, so I settled on writing this story.”
Faraway Places draws inspiration from current events and trends of today and transposes them 1,000 years into the future. In the story, humanity has colonized planets around the Earth and other star systems.
Talbot, 47, says the story is meant to make the reader do some critical thinking while enjoying a fun and at times humorous adventure.
“You will read about people who have developed different cultures over time,” he explained.
Fans of Star Wars, Star Trek or The Fifth Element will likely enjoy Talbot’s trilogy. However, what separates Faraway Places from the pack is it’s written with the female sci-fi audience in mind.
“There are strong female characters,” Talbot said. “I feel like women of sci-fi haven’t got the attention they deserve, despite them being 50 per cent of the sci-fi audience.”
Talbot wrote his trilogy in a way that treats the women of the story authentically and as original characters.
To facilitate publishing his new trilogy, he has launched a website, chainreads.com.
“I could have just gone to Amazon to publish it,” he says. “Looking at how the book industry is working and the way finance works, I decided to launch my own website and use it as a use case of blockchain technology.”
Talbot’s site aims to give back to authors and book buyers rather than the reseller. Using blockchain and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, purchasers will receive a virtual certificate of ownership that can be accessed or distributed to friends and family at any time.
“When you buy an ebook, you don’t really own it the way you would a physical book,” he said. “I think it’s important that copyright belongs to the author and not the book seller.”
Talbot’s site treats authors and readers with more respect, he says, and if people get on board with the concept, it could change the future of ebook purchasing.
“I want to prove the possibilities and what it could do for publishing,” he said. “Because this way takes some of the dominance away from the reseller, it gives authors a chance to have more direct relationships with readers.”
Those who purchase a book from Talbot’s site get an NFT that could be updated in time with extra content.
“I could potentially do a Google Meet as the author,” he said. “I could release an extra book and gift it to anybody who has the NFT.”
Talbot believes blockchain technology could break the lock Amazon and Apple have on the ebook industry.
“With my project, there is no money involved. I’m just using blockchain technology for practical use and not to try to create a new kind of money or anything like that,” he said.
“The NFTs are certificates of authenticity to say you own this copy of the book, it’s now yours, and it’s in your virtual library to give to someone else or sell it used.”
Authors who are interested in selling their ebooks on Talbot’s site can contact him here.
“I want to get feedback from authors and people who go on the website,” he said. “I want to get the word out and hear from people.”
Faraway Places costs $19.75 and can be purchased here.
