Neil Strauss knows how to write about weird subcultures. His infamous bestseller “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists,” rele
Neil Strauss knows how to write about weird subcultures. His infamous bestseller “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists,” released in 2005, introduced the world to concepts like “negging” and “peacocking.” (If you set foot in a club in the 2000s, you’ve heard the terms.)
More bestsellers would follow. Ten in total. Books on survivalism, heavy metal, porn stars. But Strauss might have just stumbled into the wildest subculture of his career: The Bored Ape Yacht Club. (In the unlikely event you clicked on this story but are unfamiliar with the BAYC, you’ll find a quick primer in my conversation with its anonymous creators.)
This interview is part of Culture Week, which explores how crypto is changing media and entertainment.
So how is Strauss involved with the Bored Apes? It started with Ape #1798. This would be an Ape who goes by Jenkins, or rather “Jenkins the Valet.” The owner of Jenkins, in a legitimately inspired burst of creativity, invented an elaborate backstory for his Ape. Jenkins (the Ape) comes from humble roots, and now he works as a valet for the Yacht Club. Jenkins is always listening. Jenkins knows the Club’s juiciest secrets. Now Jenkins is ready to write a tell-all memoir about the Apes’ shenanigans.
And Jenkins will have help. During the in-real-life mayhem of NFT NYC, as Jessica Klein reported for Input, one of the Apes (or technically a human who owns an Ape) told the ecstatic crowd, “We needed to find the best memoir writer that ever existed… So, we found Neil Strauss.” The Apes cheered.
Now this is where things get interesting. What, exactly, does it mean to write a “memoir” about a group of NFT-avatars that kind of exists but kind of doesn’t? “That’s up to the community,” Strauss tells me. And this is literally the case. Through a clever use of NFTs within the BAYC ecosystem, the Apes can purchase the right to enter the “Writers Room 2.0″ – essentially a group conference call with Strauss. If you’re an Ape who splurges on a top-tier “yacht” NFT, then you get to be an actual character in the book. Your Writers Room NFT also gives you voting privileges, letting you help shape the narrative of the book.
It’s easy to be cynical about a book of fake apes. And it’s easy to dismiss all of this as crypto speculation run amuck. Then again… for years, blockchain advocates have championed its ability to “disrupt industries.” That’s usually an abstract concept. That’s usually all hype. But here is a concrete, hyper-specific example of a group of creative people who are using NFTs – and the wealth they generated through said NFTs – to recruit a blue chip, bestselling writer to conjure a book into the world. Yes, the book will be about “fake apes,” but isn’t that just a form of fiction? Perhaps this will be the first true novel of Web 3.0.
Oh, and Jenkins the Valet? He is now repped by Creative Artists Agency. “Yes, that CAA,” writes Jenkins (the human owner) on his site. “The same one that represents Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Dwyane Wade, Cristiano Ronaldo, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise. They now also represent me, Jenkins The Valet, on my content endeavors.”
In the meantime, Strauss has been a busy guy. On December 5, he became the first mainstream author (at least that we’re aware of) to mint a book on Ethereum and sell it on OpenSea:
“Surviving All Apocalypses: From Machine Uprisings to Bear Markets.” Only 892 copies were minted, and as of this writing, the “floor price” of the book is 0.59 ETH, or roughly $2,600…meaning the implied market cap is over $2.3 million. Has Strauss just cracked the future of publishing?
Strauss has long been fascinated by crypto and the NFT space. He’s been curious as to how, as a creator, he can make the most of this new world. He’s been asking himself, “What is the place for an author there?”
Now he has his answer.
Interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
CoinDesk: How’d you get involved in this wacky world?
Neil Strauss: Back in 2016 I heard about Steemit. I thought, “That’s a cool model; you can get paid in crypto instead of likes.” And that really makes more sense. Because who cares about a heart emoji?
Right.
So I put something up and it made $7,500, or something crazy like that. And I’m like, this is really interesting. I then thought, “Let me do a test.” So I wrote a piece for “Rolling Stone” about Steemit, and then I wrote a piece on Steemit about writing the “Rolling Stone” piece. I wanted to see which performed better. And in terms of attention, interest, and on a monetary level, the one on Steemit far outperformed the one on “Rolling Stone.”
Clever double-dip, sir. Well played.
Yeah, exactly. [Both laugh.] And this was before Substack. Then I realized, okay, this is the way, as a creator, for me to access this new asset class without a financial investment. It’s a time and creativity investment, which is…
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