Show HN: Startup sci-fi novel that took me 5 years to write(blockchainednovel.com)
blockchainednovel.com
Show HN: Startup sci-fi novel that took me 5 years to write
https://www.blockchainednovel.com/
15 comments
Congratulations on shipping! Not sure what the process is for US-based public libraries to buy new books, but you should look into it. Where I live (Cupertino, California), the new books section gets read (a lot!)
Thank you! I did also submit this to IngramSparks, which is a platform for bookstores and libraries. From what I've read, the process would be to enable the book for distribution, and libraries would have a way in their systems to review and place orders for new books that are released.
Congratulations! As someone working on my own sci-fi novel, I thought your comment "I kept on tinkering because it was more comfortable than overcoming the fear of launching," was so damn true.
Just out of curiousity, did you attempt the traditional agent and publisher route and if so any learnings you'd be willing to share with someone who'd like to go down that route?
Just out of curiousity, did you attempt the traditional agent and publisher route and if so any learnings you'd be willing to share with someone who'd like to go down that route?
Five years is an impressive commitment. In a world that often celebrates speed, it's refreshing to see long-term creative projects that require patience and consistency.
Just an FYI, your site text is not readable. It's a white fade background with white text.
Are you trying to read the sample chapters? What browser are you on? And did you try toggling dark/light mode?
I will buy the ebook if I can pay with crypto.
You know what, I seriously considered selling this on the blockchain, but cut it out of scope on the end :) if you are serious, we can always do a manual transaction
You're living my dream - congrats! :D
Love from www.inkican.com
Love from www.inkican.com
Congratulations!
They’d run out of cash in twelve weeks. Of course, nobody knew this except for Terry—as a founder, Terry carried that burden alone. He protected his team from the dire reality so they could focus on shipping the goddamn product.
... The burden of running out of pay for the other guys is casually not mentioned?...
Unless your only audience is startup founders I might just replace it with some different phrasing...
He didn't want to distract his team while also fearing about being able to keep paying them...
Just my 2c to make the average reader care more :))
They’d run out of cash in twelve weeks. Of course, nobody knew this except for Terry—as a founder, Terry carried that burden alone. He protected his team from the dire reality so they could focus on shipping the goddamn product.
... The burden of running out of pay for the other guys is casually not mentioned?...
Unless your only audience is startup founders I might just replace it with some different phrasing...
He didn't want to distract his team while also fearing about being able to keep paying them...
Just my 2c to make the average reader care more :))
Congratulations!
It was too late to review the flashcards upon which he collected the toughest questions venture capitalists have asked him.
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It was too late to review the flashcards on which he had collected the toughest questions venture capitalists had asked him.
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It was too late to review the flashcards on which he had collected the toughest questions venture capitalists had asked him.
Congrats !
love sci fi such great project here
A 1,000-word writing exercise turned into a complete 125k-word manuscript over the course of a year.
In year 1, I learned the sheer joy of unencumbered creative flow and authentic expression. A similar flow I used to get from coding (and more recently vibe coding). What made it effortless was a mindset that I was writing for the sake of it, not with the intention of publishing.
After a year of keeping it close to my chest, I decided to show it to a few close friends. They liked some of it, destroyed some of it. Some ultimately encouraged me to publish it.
In year 2, I learned about the chasm between writing for myself and writing for an audience. Nerdy stuff I thought were clever completely flew over my readers' heads. So I studied a dozen textbooks on literature, prose, poetry, voice, grammar, and completely rewrote the manuscript twice over, this time with the audience in mind. There is a lot more finesse to writing than I originally appreciated.
In year 3, I felt ready to pitch literary agents. The reason wasn't to make a career out of writing, but to learn from professionals. After 100 personalized pitches and 0 offers of representation, I learned that pitching agents was much harder than pitching VCs. Especially for a niche novel like mine; fellow startup founders was too small of a TAM.
In year 4, I engaged with a professional author/editor (Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse), who gave me essays worth of incredible developmental feedback. Lots of nuanced feedback I couldn't get from textbooks. Per his advice, I started back at chapter 1 and refactored the whole manuscript. I distilled it down to the best 88k words.
The tinkering never stops; when do you know it's done? I realized that I kept on tinkering because it was more comfortable than overcoming the fear of launching. Today, on 06/08/26, almost 5 years after that Stephen King writing exercise, I'm ready to say “ship it.”
Blockchained is a near-future startup sci-fi thriller that chronicles a struggling startup founder who meets a mysterious investor in Hong Kong. Little does he know that the too-good-to-be-true investor works for the Chinese government.
Blockchained was written for the fellow startup founders, engineers, and near-future sci-fi enthusiasts. In other words, HN community, you are my target audience
Sample chapters available at https://www.blockchainednovel.com/ — eBook and paperback available today. Hardcover edition coming soon.
I suppose we live in an era where it must be qualified that Blockchained was 99.9% lovingly handcrafted. No AI was used to write this novel aside from research, spellcheck, grammar, and the occasional phrasing checks.