Why I’m Selling My Book Cover as a $35,000 NFT

I quit my stable government job at twenty-three to publish a novel. You can laugh if you want to. The book was a coming-of-age story about… Ok, it doesn’t matter. The book was awful. Every agent rejected it, and nine months later, I went back to work with my tail tucked.

But this began a thirteen-year effort to make a living as a full-time writer. I followed the roadmap laid out by the publishing industry. I attended writer’s conferences and workshops. I wrote book after book. I piled up hundreds of rejections from New York agents. I went all-in on my dream, working side gig after side gig to keep the dream alive.

In 2019, I thought my time had arrived. The book was called, She Died Famous, and on paper, it was a success — good sales, good buzz, and reviews. I even got the attention of a Hollywood director who optioned it to be a movie. But as the months went by, and that initial surge of royalties dwindled, I was left with a harsh truth — I wasn’t even close to earning a decent living from my book royalties.

Was I foolish for believing that publishing books could be a sustainable career? Before I sunk another dime and energy into publishing the sequel, I wanted to do some research.

That’s when I came across a fascinating article with a shocking statistic from the NY TIMES: “98 percent of the books that publishers released in 2020 sold fewer than 5,000 copies.”

The dream of making a living from book royalties is statistically rare. Between the publisher’s cut, your agents cut, and the booksellers cut, authors are left with scraps from the limited amount of books they sell. And what about self-publishing? Despite a better cut of the pie, you still have to factor in editing, design, and all the marketing expenses it takes to get noticed in a sea of millions.

The takeaway — The current system isn’t working for most authors.

My Experiment

In a journey documented in my newsletter, I decided to experiment with different platforms with a single goal — How can authors earn a living outside of book royalties? Over four months, I serialized a novel via Substack, gave my book away on Wattpad, marketed on TikTok, published on Amazon Vella, and dabbled on Medium. While these are all viable options for writers to earn money in the creator economy, they didn’t feel like the solution I was looking for.

And then I fell into the Web3 rabbit hole.

Welcome to Web 3

There is a lot of buzz around words like Web3, NFTs, and the Metaverse. With meme coins and animal avatars selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s easy to see this new tech as a fad or a bubble. But dig deeper, and you’ll see something magical happening below the surface.

This technology is revolutionizing the way creators are being paid for their art.

All across this new internet, graphic designers, musicians, artists, painters, and photographers are selling digital collectibles (NFTS) as a way of building community and funding their creative projects. In turn, fans are staking their favorite artists by investing in these digital assets, which often come with online and offline perks.

For example, when author Gary Vaynerchuk launched his VeeFriends NFT collection, he offered collectors private zoom sessions, private workouts, and one NFT where you get (6) gifts sent to you per year for (3) years. And if the fans no longer want to be community members or stakeholders, they can sell the NFTs on the open market. Gary’s NFTs are so valuable that when he did launch his book, he sold over a million books on pre-sale by promising a digital collectible to anyone who pre-ordered twelve copies.

But here’s the best part of it all — These creators are launching these projects without the backing of corporations or record companies. There is no Netflix war chest or VC funding. These artists are financially supported by fans, patrons, and fellow artists. Blockchain technology is shifting the power away from corporations and gatekeepers, and back into the hands of the creators and their fans.

As I read and researched, I could feel my heart beating out of my chest. The answer to my question was somewhere in the metaverse. But how can authors participate?

Publishing 3.0

When it comes to embracing new technology publishing has never been an early adopter. The industry can be downright resistant to anything that disrupts the status quo. Like when four NY Times Bestselling authors tried to launch a storytelling NFT project (Realm of Ruin), the Twitter writing community quickly labeled them scam artists. As a result, the project was canceled within hours without a real discussion.

Still, indie authors have done exciting things on the fringe. Emily Segal used a blockchain platform to crowdfund her novel, Burn Alpha. She offered her readers tokens in exchange for a cut of the final sale of the NFT book and raised 24 ETH ($85,000 today). Author Elle Griffin teamed up with a crypto investor to tell a fictional biography where readers have to purchase NFTs to unlock the next chapter. Whether the traditional publishing world wants to admit it or not, innovative things are happening in the space. Just like the ebook, the technology will eventually infiltrate the industry.

My Launch

For my own book launch, my brain was spinning a million miles an hour. What if I launched 10,000 collectible NFTs and each one was paired with a physical copy of the book? Or what if I did a crowdfunding campaign and offered backers a small royalty percentage of every copy sold? But the more I thought about it; the more overwhelmed I became. The truth is, we are still in the infancy stages of all this and the execution of a full-blown NFT book launch felt daunting.

So I decided to do something simple and audacious with the hopes of finding a new type of publisher. I’m launching one digital collectible. Here it is on the NFT marketplace, Open Sea.

I’m releasing the book cover as a 1/1 NFT, which includes a 1/1 first edition digital NFT of the entire book upon release. My goal is to attract a Web3 partner who wants to bridge the divide between Web3 and publishing. Someone who wants to disrupt the publishing industry. I’m willing to listen and learn and document the process for other authors. The proceeds of the NFT will go to editing, publishing, and marketing the book (or whatever form it takes).

For that reason, the price tag on the NFT will be quite high (11 ETH, approximately $35,000).

Whoever purchases the 1/1 cover should know that this isn’t a one-off project or a publicity stunt. This book is part of a larger universe that I plan on writing in for years to come. With the purchase of the NFT, you will also unlock other perks, which include a character named after you, a signed first edition physical copy, the first shoutout in my acknowledgment section, and access to a private discord where our collaboration will begin. My goal is to see the value of this NFT increase over time.

What is the book about?

The Influencer is the second installment of the Died Famous universe. Quick Pitch: Fyre Festival meets Hunger Games in this speculative thriller about a social media competition in paradise that turns deadly. You can read more about the project, me, and a full book synopsis here: diedfamousbooks.com/the-influencer.

If you’re reading this, and interested in partnering with me, you can purchase the NFT HERE.

You can also watch me document the entire book launch journey by following by substack at kmrutkin.substack.com