Literary World Is Latest to Embrace NFTs

Anand Giridharadas, a former The New York Times columnist and author of books including India Calling, The True American, and Winners Take All, announced today that he is auctioning off a collection of previously unpublished materials in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

“A literary #NFT”, Giridharadas tweeted, adding, “Today I drop ‘Winners Take All: Author’s Cut’ as an experiment. I’m excited and nervous to share this.”

An NFT is a type of crypto token that has unique identifying information embedded in it. This makes each of them unique and creates digital scarcity, attracting collectors from around the world—some of whom are prepared to spend big money.

While Giridharadas’s collection, hosted on NFT marketplace OpenSea, doesn’t contain the book itself, it allows crypto enthusiasts to purchase an assortment of behind-the-scenes materials.

At press time, the most expensive item in Giridharadas’s literary drop is “What's in a (sub)title?”—a collection of work-in-progress titles and subtitles for his book Winners Take All that didn’t make the cut. The highest bid for it is currently 3.3 ETH ($5,945).

It is closely followed by an unpublished cover concept for Winners Take All—the highest bid for it is 3 ETH ($5,405). The collection also comprises five pages (separately) with previously unpublished excerpts from the book, the “Plutes gonna plute” template, and the word “MarketWorld.” Literally just the word “MarketWorld” itself.

According to Giridharadas, all the proceeds from his literary drop will be used to help publish emerging authors’ works on The Ink—his own website.

“I’m excited to be able to use proceeds to publish emerging nonfiction writers on The Ink, hopefully pieces that wouldn’t otherwise be published. If that may be you, get in touch," Giridharadas said.

The author also addressed growing concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs, noting that he will use carbon offset to mitigate the impact of his own collection of NFTs.

“Like a lot of you, I share the concerns about the environmental aspect, and plan to work with OpenSea to offset my own collection until they can solve the problem systemically for everyone,” Giridharadas noted.

As Decrypt reported, some NFT marketplaces are also actively trying to reduce Ethereum's ecological footprint.