Why Write A Book When You Can Write One With 5,000 Of Your Closest Friends?
Jenkins the Valet on crowdsourcing a book & the future of decentralized publishing
Bored Ape Yacht Club Takeover
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is taking over the world.
The floor price for an Ape is up to 13.2 ETH, the equivalent of ~$42,000 and there are now more than 5,000 unique holders. Christie’s is auctioning off four Apes on September 17th in Hong Kong.
Next up: The publishing industry. Enter Jenkins the Valet & YOU.
Decentralized Publishing
Last week, Jenkins the Valet sold 6,942 writer’s room NFTs for 0.06942 ETH each, selling out is less than 10 minutes. Each unique NFT gives the owner critical input into writing a book, but more importantly, telling a story.
There are four tiers of NFTs, now only available on the secondary market:
Valet Ticket (74.98%): your name (And ape if you own one) is listed in the acknowledgements; 5 writers room votes.
Valet Key (19.75%): your Ape (if you own one) can be found in a game of “Where’s Jenkin’s” on the back inside cover if you own one or you are referenced in the story if you don’t; 10 writers room votes.
Valet Stand (4.25%): your ape (if you own one) is in an illustration if you own one or you are referenced in the story if you don’t; 50 writers room votes.
WAGMI Yacht (0.99%): your ape (if you own one) is in the book if you own one or you are referenced in the story if you don’t; 215 writers room votes.
Q&A With Jenkins The Valet
I put together a list of questions for Jenkins and he was kind enough to answer them for us. What follows are his answers in their entirety, with minor edits for clarity.
TSF: Congrats on the launch! Is there anything you’d like to say to get us started?
Jenkins: Thanks so much! I just want to give a huge shoutout to members of the Writer’s Room and say thank you to them for sharing in the belief that we have for this project. The conversations that we’ve been having in the Authors-Chat have been amazing and we’re blown away by everyone’s thoughtfulness.
TSF: Who is Jenkins and how did he come to be the valet for the BAYC?
Jenkins: When I first saw the ape that would become Jenkins, I was drawn to his clothing and his determined eyes. His avi art struck me and I felt there was a story behind him. His outfit screams “valet” and his “vuh” phoneme mouth gives off the impression that he knows more than he’s letting on, and is doing what he can to keep from spilling the dirt. When I first saw Ape #1798, I didn’t know he would become Jenkins, but I knew there was more to him than met my eye at that very moment and I wanted to spend time thinking about it and him. Having said that, I find this level of excitement and intrigue to be true with almost every Ape which is a credit to the BAYC team.
TSF: What is the background of the team behind Jenkins?
Jenkins: We have a core team of three. I am a Lead Product Manager at a public consumer tech company. My partner, See Ape Follow Ape (or SAFA for short), works in marketing and brand strategy and he runs a successful business. We have also brought on Foobar, the Solidity developer behind Gamestop’s upcoming NFT, Revest Finance, and HD Punks to name a few. He is an amazing member of the team.
On top of the core team, we’ve been lucky to surround ourselves with amazing advisors —Andy Chorlian of Fractional, Jacob Martin the NFT Attorney, Drew Austin of Redbeard VC, the Founder of Causeway Strategies Josh Ong, and Brightloom CEO Adam Brotman. Each of these advisors give us great insight into strategy, development, go-to-market, and more.
TSF: What were your motivations behind creating a decentralized book?
Jenkins: I have a creative writing background, so I named my ape Jenkins and started writing backstory for him right after I made the purchase. As I started writing, I found that the BAYC community had amazing feedback for what I was doing and others wanted to join in. What made the early Jenkins vignettes that I posted on Twitter so special was that they were a true collective effort between myself, Safa, and the Apes we were writing for. That led us to our thesis that we could go even bigger by crowdsourcing creative direction for a full length narrative story.
TSF: What are you looking forward to most about the writing process?
Jenkins: I’m most looking forward to seeing how members of the Writer’s Room campaign to have their voices heard and make their votes count. There are so many significant ideas folks have for the direction of the story we are writing; it will be exciting to watch these ideas blossom as groups emerge that feel strongly about one direction versus another. We’ve designed a voting portal that is really user friendly and I look forward to seeing what the group comes up with.
TSF: What do you hope the Writer’s Room can be for the community?
Jenkins: I hope that it serves as a new form of utility in the NFT space for the community and they all feel a strong sense of membership and ownership in the Writer’s Room as they participate in the creation of the narrative. Naturally, I hope that the community has fun during the process as well.
TSF: What are the plans for the physical copy of the book?
Jenkins: Every member of the Writer’s Room will receive a physical copy of the book and I’m thrilled that people will get the chance to display them wherever they like.
We also have plans to make a larger physical copy that represents the ultimate, original 1/1 book. I think in the true fashion of a community oriented service Ape, the members of the Writer’s Room should vote on where that book is displayed.
TSF: Where do you see the future of decentralized publishing headed?
Jenkins: Right now, I’m laser-focused on creating an amazing piece of work for our first story. Beyond that, I haven’t spent a ton of time thinking about the future of decentralized publishing. However, NFTs are constantly blurring the line between consumer and creator which has the potential to get “fan fiction” off the margins and on to center stage in a more “official” content capacity. I could see decentralized publishing as a means and method for “fan fiction” to go mainstream, as authors partner with their community to generate stories about brands, characters, and worlds people will love.
TSF: What are the next elements of the roadmap people should be aware of?
Jenkins: There are so many things at work right now. We’ve just published an announcement to Writer’s Room members that we’re looking to hire from our community. We’re hiring a software developer, a UI designer, a business operations manager, and a junior graphic designer to help us execute against the roadmap. In the short term, we’re focused on finishing development of the Writer’s Room portal, partnering with a renowned author to help bring the book to life, and iterating through our licensing agreements to make them as beneficial as possible for Apes and for our Writer’s Room members. In the long term we look forward to reaching agreements with other avatar projects who would like the Writer’s Room to include their characters in our stories.
TSF: Where do you see Jenkins in 10 years?
Jenkins: We have really ambitious goals for Jenkins and for Tally Labs, our parent company. In 10 years, I think we’ll be producing content of every medium in the Writer’s Room. Books,, movies, TV shows, you name it. We’ll be making immersive digital content that redefines what an “e-book” is. The only thing I’m sure won’t change is that the same 6,942 NFTs that get you into the Writer’s Room today will be the only ones in existence. We will continue to depend on member voting for everything we produce.
Big thank you to Jenkins. Appreciate him taking the time to speak with the Space Cowboy. Until next time, I’ll see you crazy apes in the metaverse.
Be sure to check out The Jenkins Valet:
Full disclosure: I minted seven NFTs and now am the proud owner of four valet tickets and three valet keys.
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