An Interview with Authors Ehsan and Shakil Ahmad

Authors Ehsan and Shakil Ahmad

The Ahmad brothers are a pair of science fiction authors who explored a bold new avenue in publishing their next project through Non Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, and they took a moment out of their busy schedule to discuss this ambitious approach to publishing.
 
Nerds That Geek: What led to the creation of ‘The Wild Sun Collective’?
 
The Ahmad Brothers: It was Matt John (@Mjdata), tech entrepreneur and cryptocurrency investor/advocate, that floated the concept to Ehsan. The initial vision was a bit narrower than the broad scope we eventually pursued. It began with reaching out to a few NFT artists for enlistment in “book as NFT” project. Fortunately, MJ was able to secure some of the top artists within in the space to commit to lead-artist roles: Robbie Trevino (characters) and Annable Siconolfi (world building). With that initial spark we gained some confidence to think and believe more theoretically about our efforts. We expanded our approach to artists spanning multiple mediums: cartographer, photographer, composer, motion capture, etc. Furthermore, we decided to memorialize the expansive effort and the take on digital publishing in a white paper that we published on Medium. The core mechanics for NFT publishing that we can discuss further are:
 

• Immersive Publishing (NFT)
• Literary Fair Launch
• Artists as Partners (fair royalties)
• Novel Rights Transfer (NRT — blockchain)​

 
NTG: How did you select the art for the book?
 
The Ahmad Brothers: The art was inspired and created by the artists based on a project brief we provided – see attached. There were no specific guard rails in terms of the artwork beyond this. We did consider specific artists in order to achieve a mixed-media and therefore, more immersive experience.
 
NTG: What are you hoping this ambitious project accomplishes for creative individuals?
 
The Ahmad Brothers: We wax on this quite a bit between each other. We are hoping as first movers with the first natively published NFT book series to usher in a new wave of digital publishing. As well, the NFT space is in its nascent stages and we would love to see readers become collectors in order to create a more sustainable future for artists.
 
NTG: What are you most proud of when it comes to this project?
 
The Ahmad Brothers: Pulling it off in such a short span of time in a digital world and culture that is relatively new to Ehsan and I. Fortunately, Matt filled in the more substantive blanks, but after just a few months I feel as though we are veterans in the space. The NFT world is revolving that quickly. We wanted our effort to be professional in order to respect all the artists’ efforts. As well, this is not a sprint. We are treating this like a long term project and feel there is much riding on it.
 
NTG: What lies ahead for this bold new idea?
 
The Ahmad Brothers: We have garnered a good amount of attention since launch. We are in talks with a few content platforms on potential next steps. We are considering a “Phase 2” of this based on all that we learned from our first go around.

To learn more about this ambitious project and the other topics outlined above, click here. 

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