Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy
Symeon Brown
More than one fifth of children want to become influencers and it’s easy to understand why. What if you could escape economic uncertainty by winning the internet’s attention? What if you could turn the adoration of your social media followers into a lucrative livelihood?
But as Symeon Brown explores in this searing exposé, the reality is much murkier. From IRL streamers in LA to Brazilian butt lifts, from sex workers on OnlyFans to fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes, these are the incredible stories that lurk behind the filtered selfies and gleaming smiles.
Exposing the fraud, exploitation, bribery, and dishonesty at the core of the influencer model, Get Rich or Lie Trying asks if our digital rat race is costing us too much. Revealing a broken economy resembling a pyramid scheme, this incredible blend of reportage and analysis will captivate and horrify you in equal measure.
Media Reviews
Well-researched, quietly polemic – The Sunday Times
Brown’s skill as a reporter – his curiosity about why people do what they do, his conviction that their reasons for doing so are worth exploring, and his ability to faithfully tell their stories – makes his a starkly original inquiry. – Times Literary Supplement
Meticulously researched – New Statesman
A rigorous and riveting deep-dive into the influencer ecosystem – brimming with critical analysis but executed with the lightest touch. – Pandora Sykes
‘[A] well-researched polemic… Brown’s book is wonderfully expansive… The book’s strength is its forensic examination of power and economic structures’ – The i
Entertaining – The Economist
Fantastic and one of the first to try and really figure out how a deterioration of material conditions for young people has resulted in a hyper individualistic and cynical influencer economy built on deception – Hussein Kesvani
A welcome balance of curiosity, compassion and intellect – Irish Indepedent
The first serious attempt to expose the hidden darker side of the economy of influencing – Financial Times
A new cutting exposé – Dazed
The modern influencer model starts to feel more like a scam or a pyramid scheme than a system rewarding aspiration and ‘hard work’. In his new book, Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy, journalist and author Symeon Brown gets to the heart of this murky world – Huck
A compelling read. It had my whole household talking! – Reni Eddo Lodge, bestselling author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Symeon Brown is one of Britain’s foremost thinkers. – Yomi Adegoke, Author of Slay In Your Lane and Vogue Columnist
A monumental and overdue interrogation of the winners and losers of modern influencer and hustle culture. It is rigorously researched and written with both sincerity and a great deal of empathy. – Jason Okundaye, Writer & Columnist
Highly original and thoroughly entertaining. A deliciously well written deep dive into the smoke and mirror filled multi-billion-dollar world of influencer culture and ‘business’. – Nels Abbey, author of Think Like A White Man
Symeon is a vital new literary voice. This is essential reading., combining investigative journalism with a deep knowledge of popular culture and astute analysis of late-stage capitalism. – Emma Dabiri, Author of What White People Can Do Next
Doggedly reported and packed with outrageous anecdotes, this is a persuasive argument that 21st-century influencers are nothing more than 19th-century snake oil salesmen reincarnated – Publishers Weekly