As we first reported back in 2016, his life story was eagerly snapped up by Simon and Schuster imprint Gallery. And hardly surprising: though he’s only 39, Bilzerian — who has a staggering 31.4 million Instagram followers — claims to have tried and failed to become a Navy Seal, earned a fortune as a poker player, survived the 2017 Las Vegas shooting and two drug-induced heart attacks and bathed in hot tubs with enough models to make Leo DiCaprio look hopelessly shy.

But a source tells us that the deal — brokered by UTA agent Byrd Leavell — went up in smoke because Bilzerian was too busy with his hot tub pals to actually write the book, and never delivered a manuscript.

And when we ran the saga by Leavell, he told us, “You have it. I do not represent that guy anymore.”

But a rep for Bilzerian told us that isn’t how it went down at all. “[Simon and Schuster] finished a ghost-written book which Dan wasn’t happy with,” said the rep, “so he returned the advance and wrote the book himself — no ghostwriter — and he intends to self-publish.”

This month, Bilzerian said on Instagram he’d finished the book adding, “$5,000 to the best book title in the comments.”

Gallery didn’t get back to us.