The New Project revealed!

As you may have guessed from the last couple of posts, I'm unveiling the New Project today! It's a middle-grade novel called "The Nominal Hero," and I'm just so excited to be sending the first few chapters out into the world.

"But Tasha! Doesn't posting the novel to your blog mean you can't sell it to publishers?"

That is indeed what it means. When you try to sell a novel to a traditional publisher, you're selling what's called "First Rights," which simply means the right to publish something first, before it's been seen anywhere else. It's harder for the publisher to get people to pay money for something that's already available on the internet for free.

There are exceptions, of course; publishers continue to put out new editions of public-domain classics all the time, for instance, and some, like the Tor ebook of the month club and the Baen Free Library, give out free samples, usually the first book in a series, to try to get you hooked on an author's work. (I can say from experience that this definitely works; I have bought so many books by authors I discovered from Tor freebies.) But neither of these situations applies to "The Nominal Hero."

"So what are you doing, then? What is this madness?"

Glad you asked, fictional interviewer! What I am doing, in fact, is dipping my toes into the strange world of cryptocurrency, and applying for funding for the book from the Nouns DAO.

Nouns is a sort of digital art project, cryptocurrency collectible, sponsor of miscellaneous charitable causes and events, community, and all-around cool idea. I happen to know one of the founders, and when I started hearing about Nouns, it sparked a story idea for a kids' book. So I started writing it, as a fun little side project, and reading the chapters to my favourite eight-year-old as I went. He was really enthusiastic, and I thought other kids might be, too!

The Nouns DAO has funded other creative projects, like this cool short film The Wizard's Hat, so I figure I have a chance. I really believe in this book, and I'm hoping other people will too. I've put up the proposal for their consideration, and posted the first two chapters as text on this blog, and as an audio file of me reading them aloud.

If the proposal passes, I'll be posting another chapter about every three weeks. I'm hoping we can go on this journey together!