Very detailed analysis of the recent rise of internet stars and the obsession in becoming <insert social media platform> famous. I found it very interesting, especially as someone who also is considered an influencer - even though this is not something I set out to accomplish.

Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy by Symeon Brown is a fascinating and eye-opening look at the world of social media influencers. Brown, a journalist and author, spent two years researching the industry, interviewing influencers, marketers, and other experts. The result is a book that is both entertaining and disturbing, as it reveals the dark side of the influencer economy.

One of the most striking things about Brown's book is the extent to which influencers are willing to lie and deceive in order to succeed. Brown tells the story of one influencer who faked her own death in order to gain attention, and another who used a fake name and location to make herself seem more popular. He also describes the ways in which influencers are manipulated by brands and marketers, who often pressure them to promote products that they don't actually use or believe in.

In addition to the lies and deception, Brown also exposes the exploitation and abuse that is rampant in the influencer economy. He tells the story of one influencer who was forced to work long hours for little pay, and another who was sexually harassed by a brand manager. He also describes the way in which influencers are often used to sell products that are harmful or dangerous.

Get Rich or Lie Trying is a sobering look at the dark side of the influencer economy. Brown's book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in social media, marketing, or the future of work. It is a reminder that the glamorous world of influencers is not all it seems, and that there is a dark side to the pursuit of fame and fortune. It was an easy read making it suitable for anyone interested in social media and paints a cautionary tale for would be influencers.

As someone slightly older than the demographic of most people these influencers would wish to be known to, but also someone who has worked in marketing for 20 years, I found the manner in which brands engage with would be influencers particularly insightful. The book also made me wonder how the world of marketing would change in the next 20 years.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book offers a fascinating and in-depth glimpse into the world of influencers. The author has presented the subject matter in a compelling and informative way, making it feel like a well-crafted documentary.

Whether you're curious about pop culture, intrigued by the influencer phenomenon, or want to better understand the world of your children, this book is a must-read. The writing is engaging, and after reading this book, I understood the world of influencers, for good and bad, a lot more.

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

I needed to know nothing more about this book's contents to be certain I was going to become invested in it after reading the tagline - <i>"ambition and deceit in the new influencer economy."</i>

The crazy and corrupt world of social media fame and the influencer status is a ceaselessly intriguing one and I will take any book - either fiction or non-fiction - that allows me uninterrupted access to it.

It is not something I have personally vied for but I can certainly see the allure, especially for younger generations, and the seemingly easily access to fame and wealth that it also affords. The 'like' button is the gateway drug to it all though. Symeon Brown explored many different avenues that online creators can take and I really appreciated the different topics covered within them. This did not hate for the sake of hating but felt like a very raw and honest account of all that is occurring in the new business that is selling our souls in tiny pixels.

Get Rich or Lie Trying is a fascinating read that really highlights the sometimes seedy and untruthful life influencers and social media stars lead in the pursuit of being an influencer. It also looks at the industry as a whole. An eye opening read.

Although this journalistic account didn't perhaps go deep enough into why influencer economy had taken such a hold (it's waning now), all the ins and outs are appalling and fascinating (and entertaining) to read about .. capped recently by inordinate interest in Kardashians, Rooney et Al.. I'm glad it's been done though, and I hope it will have wide readership!

I didn’t really have any expectations going into this book, which is sometimes the best way isn’t it? I knew that I wanted to hear what this writer had to say about the influencer economy, living so much of my own life online as I do, but I had an open mind about what else they were going to throw at me. I feel like I learned quite a lot from this book, some about brands I had heard of and others from a world that was completely new to me.
There were a couple of sections of this book that didn’t appeal to me as much as others, but that's the great thing about nonfiction that’s broken into sections like this, I could skip over the end of a chapter or two and still be connected to the text. I think I expected a broader look at more brands and more corners of the internet and what I got was a deeper look at a few choice brands in key areas. I did like that though because it meant I got to learn more about people/brands I hadn’t heard of.
I didn’t expect as strong a message of the fact that the influencer economy, like so much of the world, is incredibly misogynistic and led by the male desire and patriarchal rules. I like the way this book exposes that by looking at particular money-making schemes and ways people can grow their brand quicker that are just more successful and an easier way to live life if people are exploited along the way. This book was definitely uber depressing in places and showed just what a raw and cut throat world influencer culture is. I enjoyed this book on audio, although it would have been good to be able to skim the chapters of a physical book beforehand to see what appealed to me first.

I don't normally go for nonfiction books, but this one sounded fascinating, and I'm glad I went for it. Symeon offers deep insight into the damage done to the world as well as our mental and physical health by the influencer economy. Things I'd never have connected are made startlingly clear – such as the damage done by the fast-fashion industry, which is supported and turned into an even bigger monster by influencers sharing the products on their timelines. And while I was vaguely aware of the damage done to women's self-esteem by influencers and filters alike, I didn't realise it had gotten so bad. When I was in my twenties, we pretty much just wanted to be skinny and tan with shiny hair and big boobs, and maybe have smaller noses. Now girls in their twenties want huge lips, tiny noses with impossibly narrow bridges, chiselled jawlines, massive tits and butts out of proportion with their body types – basically, they all want to look like one of those ridiculous filters that makes everyone look like an anime character. And to make it more terrifying, dodgy surgeons are promising to make these twisted realities happen! Oh, by the way, if you suffer from morbid curiosity like me and look up the woman whose boob job went so bad...well, just make sure you do it on an empty stomach.

Forgive me, I'm rambling. Really good nonfiction books make me ramble, overexcited to share what I've learned. Please go read this book and then come ramble with me.

A fascinating exploration of influencer hustle culture, I think this book is essential reading for anyone who's ever followed an influencer on social media and idly wondered what's actually going on behind the scenes. It's so interesting to read the constructed faux realities behind so many of these glossy accounts, and it also makes you think about how easily we can all be duped.

Perhaps the first length non fiction book of its kind, we have finally come far enough into the new age of online money making for someone to do a deep dive, and it didn’t disappoint.

Brown is a journalist by trade and littered throughout these chapters that outline the interconnected nature of social media influence, from fast fashion to body modification and sex work, is a sharp eye for detail and a spattering of statistics and references. Despite its detailed analysis, or perhaps because of it, the book is readable, accessible and full of quotable soundbites. After all the research I don’t doubt Brown could make a fast buck imitating all he has learnt.

However, I don’t think he would, as these stories and interviews collated from mostly young people across the world, move beyond the idea of personal greed and vanity. It goes much further than to just denounce the selfishness of influencer, it illustrates in multiple sub genres of social media it people, that many are victims of circumstance.

The cost of living crisis, the blairite years, increased student debt and raging financial insecurity all work alongside the desire to be something, to buy into the vanity and fame game; it’s much more than chance encounters with the precious fifteen minutes of fame, it’s illustrative of a society in crisis, of neoliberal ideology failing to do what it said it would, make hard work worth it.

It is easy to mock and tut at the statistics that say so many primary age children want to be an influencer or make YouTube pranks for a living, instead of berating those who pursued it, it’s useful to turn and see why those seemingly lucrative careers are most appealing. Medical school will break you, teaching is often thankless, binmen are mocked, university work is precarious and working in the supermarket is considered menial, and all are underpaid. It’s not surprising the next generation want more.

Although the nuance is vital, the book goes much further than any pithy think piece, the two lessons remain the same: almost everything online is fabricated, and anyone telling you they can make you money, is running a pyramid scheme.

This is a sobering look at the changes that social media has brought to the world – particularly when it comes to the blurring of lines between real and fake and the Wild West of promotions, adverts and sponcon. Symeon Brown is a correspondent at Channel Four news and in his first book he examines realities of influencer culture – and what lies behind the carefully curated lives that people are presenting on social media platforms. And it turns out that what is behind the glossy facade is even murkier than you are imagining. For every success story, there are countless people handing over their own money in the hopes of being the next big thing.

Across the course of the book, Brown takes you through the full range of online smoke and mirrors – from predatory plastic surgery firms taking advantage of young women who want to look more like their filtered photos, the promises of quick riches through crypto currencies or various new types of MLMs, streamers who get paid to be racially abused, influencers who are making serious money out of activism and much, much more. But at the centre of it all there are a lot of vulnerable people desperate for a better future who are being preyed on or exploited.

I’ve recommended books about scammers or frauds here before, but they’ve usually been about single people or companies perpetuating a con – whereas this covers a huge range of ways that people are being bamboozled as part of online hustle culture. It’s well written and hard to put down – and it’s going to give you a lot to think about. Very, very sobering.

There was so much I didn't know about here, having assumed it would be mainly about people selling products and their own bodies, especially the people who livestream their lives and those of others, often with horrible results. First we meet young women who are basically encouraged to buy cheap, mass-produced clothes (made by exploited female workers, often undocumented, in illegal sweatshops; it struck me though it wasn't made explicit that daughters could be selling clothes their mothers made), make "haul" videos to promote them, thus giving the clothing retailer free publicity, in the aim of getting more cheap clothes at no cost which will help them give the illusion of wealth and luxury which millennials and Generation Y people have been told they should have.

But it gets worse. Conforming to a new standard of beauty which involves an appearance of having a multiple heritage (which might in fact be performative Blackness, performed by a White woman) and a body shape never found in nature which replies on breast and buttock implants, desperate women resort to dodgy plastic surgery, often by undocumented surgeons, with no redress if (when) it goes wrong, and, if they're "lucky" various bits paid for by the surgery companies ... which then market to other women via them. It shocked me here that the companies don't go after very popular women, but women with a small following of women like them who they will be able to sell to.

Brown does a really good job at explaining all the pyramid schemes and the likes, relating it to capitalism, the neoliberalism around markets, the cult of celebrity and luxury and a sort of identity politics which has people faking their race to "pass" the other way from how we'd normally imagine it. I can't really work out which parts are more shocking: there's a whole scenario where people claim to be activists or to be empowering people but are really selling - no, hawking - half-baked theories and crap books. Where there's a way of making money or a movement, there's a scam, I suppose, but it was pretty grim reading, and there's only worse to come, apparently. He brings it right up to date with the boom in opportunities to "work from home" spread on Facebook etc., which are still nothing but pyramid schemes, breeding out of control during lockdown.

My full review on my blog (Wednesday 09 March): https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2022/03/09/book-review-symeon-brown-get-rich-or-lie-trying/

A well-written exploration of social media posturing and how various scams and “hustles” affect vulnerable people, especially women and people of colour. Brown is a talented interviewer and approaches the topic with a lot of sensitivity, rather than just making fun of subjects who “fell” for schemes.

This is an interesting and well-researched title on the rather untapped topic of the phenomenon/people we have come to call “influencers”. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t any exploration of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle influencers - as those are the ones I follow the most closely - but I think this was my problem for inferring that from the blurb. I would also have liked more interaction with large-scale bloggers/influencers (Brown instead speaks to a lot of micro-bloggers), but I appreciate that they would be unlikely to respond to a request to talk on this subject, given the title of the book! With clearly themed chapters, Brown mixes research with anecdotal evidence, using syntax and short sentence structures to put forth his opinion, and fully show the ridiculousness (and/or horror!) of some of these situations. Who knows where influencing will go, or whether it will still exist in the future; regardless, this is a good snapshot of a somewhat bizarre moment in time.

This was such an insightful read. A few months ago I closed down my Instagram and Facebook accounts after reading An Ugly Truth and this book really underlined the decision to do so. It takes a look at some aspects of influencer culture I was unaware of, and some I was, and really dissects each one in a rigorous but highly readable way - exposing the ‘get rich quick’ myth as just that.

An intriguing read into the tech dependent world that we live in. An in depth look at the influencers, pyramid sellers and scammers of today. An interesting read for anyone, even those not active on social media.

Interesting eye opener on the reality of the net economy and what can be behind the glitter.
Different cases and reality, a well researched and well written book.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

An eye-opening account of influencer culture, and the many ways the internet has enabled a new generation of pyramid schemes. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is super relevant, well researched, and I could not put it down. I think I read it in 2 seats. I was shocked about many of the revelations of what goes behind the world of influencers, especially when it comes to profiting from promoting life threatening plastic surgery or leading people to bankruptcy though very dodgy pyramid schemes. have been recommending it to all of my friends as it is a very relevant topic for millennials.

This is an excellent read. It's a thorough piece of research into the world of influencers - at times touching and at many times plain horrifying. Brown covers areas including the world of streaming, the reality of Only Fans, the truth about cryptocurrency and the extent people will go to to alter their looks to meet the latest beauty standards (this was the most horrifying part for me).

This is essential reading for the current times and we should all be aware of the impact of becoming an influencer, and being influenced by influencers. Especially as so many children nowadays have ambitions to become YouTubers and streamers!