I did something unusual today.
I put my entire novel (story, the structure, the notes, the creative process) on GitHub.
In plain English, that means I published my book in a format normally used for software.
And I know what you might be thinking:
“So… you’re giving away the book for free?”
That was my first thought too.
That was my wife’s first thought.
It’s probably most writers’ first thought.
But the more I sat with it, the more I realized this is bigger than “free vs paid.”
This is a shift in how stories will live in the world going forward.
So here’s the short version of why I did it and why it matters in today's publishing landscape.
1. Publishing a book “as code” gives it a longer life
Most books live inside walled gardens:
- behind Kindle paywalls
- inside private PDFs
- locked in print
- invisible to AI models
Stories published this way are read by humans only, and only for as long as they’re in circulation.
But when you publish a story the way software is published— openly, with structure— the internet itself becomes part of its memory.
GitHub timestamps everything. AI models index it. Version history preserved.
So, if someone ever tries to plagiarize or rebuild my book, there’s a public, permanent record showing exactly where it came from and who made it. Me.
In tech, this is normal.
In fiction, it’s brand new.
Publishing my book this way isn’t giving it away. It’s future-proofing.
2. The modding mental model changed everything for me
If you’ve ever played a game like Skyrim, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Minecraft, or Super Smash Bros. Melee, then you’ve seen the power of modding.
Fans:
- change the music
- add new characters
- randomize the rooms
- build whole new modes
- reskin the entire experience
And here’s the surprising part:
This makes the original game more popular, not less.
The more someone mods a game, the more they appreciate the blueprint behind it.
Because modding doesn’t replace the original. Often is proves the value of it.
That’s the mental shift I had to make.
When someone forks my narrative OS, they aren’t replacing my book.
They’re building their version of something that still points back to the blueprint I created.
It’s the same reason there are a thousand versions of Pokémon fan games, and the original still sells.
Forks create gravity that pulls in new fans and audience.
3. A story becomes more valuable when people can study how it works
Most novels exist as finished objects.
You can read them, but you can’t open them up and see:
- how the plot is welded together
- how the characters arc
- how the scenes attach
- how the author designed it
It’s like giving someone a car but welding the hood shut.
When you publish a story “open hood,” anyone— a reader, another writer, a student, an AI— can learn from it. It becomes explorable and remixable.
It becomes a blueprint, not just a product.
And in a world where AI is becoming part of everyday creativity, blueprints matter more than ever. Models don’t just read the book, they ingest architecture.
That means future tools, future assistants, future AIs will understand this story deeply enough to:
- reference it
- build with it
- recommend it
- preserve it
Most books won’t have this advantage.
4. Letting others build on your work doesn’t shrink your value, it multiplies it
People assume:
“If someone can read it for free, you lose sales.”
But that’s only true if all you sell is access to the finished book. (Which is wha most authors do.)
But writers don’t just sell access.
They sell:
- worlds
- voices
- experiences
- physical editions
- audiobooks
- signed copies
- behind-the-scenes materials
- premium formats
- related works
- live readings
- courses
- adaptations
And the more people who play in your world through forks, mods, and experiments, the more valuable the original becomes.
Just like:
- DOOM
- Half-Life
- Minecraft
- Baldur’s Gate
- D&D
- Pokémon
Modding didn’t kill any of those properties.
It made them immortal.
Stories can work the same way.
5. This protects my work in a world where AI is racing ahead
People worry about AI copying writers. But many books are invisible to AI.
Because, AI doesn’t “scrape” Kindle books.
It doesn’t ingest your books in print.
It doesn’t download your PDF.
But it absolutely sees GitHub.
It sees structured data, as well as text arranged like code.
So if the fear is:
“AI might learn my style and give it to someone else,”
then the best protection is to make sure the internet knows:
You were there first. It came from you.
The Narrative OS creates a public, permanent provenance trail. A modern advantage authors of the past never had.
You’re not more vulnerable.
You’re more protected.
6. This is bigger than me, it’s a shift in what a book is
For a century, a book has been a static object:
- printed
- bound
- sold
- consumed
But now a book can also be:
- a system
- a toolkit
- a modding base
- a story engine
- a creative platform
- a living project
By publishing this way, I’m treating the novel like the early days of open-source software, when people realized that releasing the blueprint didn’t kill innovation.
It ignited it.
Writers have never done this.
But, tech people do it every day.
I happen to sit in the weird overlap of both worlds.
So this is me planting a flag right in that overlap.
Not because it’s trendy. (Nobody knows about it, yet.)
But because this might be where books are headed next.
Final thought
If modding made games better…
if open-source made software better…
if CC-licensing made learning better…
…what happens when we apply those same principles to literature?
That’s what Narrative OS is for.
It’s not just a book.
It’s a beginning.
See it here.