BOOK MARKETING ®
BOOKLIFE.COM 85book clubs? Do they have blogs,
email newsletters, or podcasts?
Figure out their standard com-
munication or publishing chan-
nels and make your ask specific
to their existing behavior. Don’t
ask them to do something they’ve
never done before.
● Don’t make your request com-
plicated or broad. Your initial
ask shouldn’t require research,
intensive deliberation, or a mul-
tifaceted response addressing
several different issues. “I’d love
to collaborate with you!” could
strike fear in the heart of your
contact, especially if collabora-
tion is not strictly defined. Make
it easy for targets to agree to
something specific—something
they can envision themselves
doing or adding as an item on
their to-do lists.
As someone with an active blog,
newsletter, and social media
account, I receive frequent
requests for coverage, but only
a tiny percentage of pitches
express awareness that I don’t
review books and I rarely inter-
view authors. However, I do run
excerpts, so that’s what I offer
instead of a review. But not all
people you reach out to will offer
an alternative method of support.
They’ll simply say no.
That’s why, if someone does
say no, keep that person on your
list for the future. As the author
James Clear has said, no often
means “not right now” or “not
in that way.” Your timing might
be better next time—as well as
your ask. ■
Jane Friedman teaches digital
media and publishing at the
University of Virginia and is
the former publisher of
Writer’s Digest.
BookLife Talks with
Scott T. Grusky
In his novel Zero Percenters, Grusky tackles
artificial intelligence and humanity’s future in
what our reviewer called an “ultimate fantasy
for those who cherish the hope of no-cost
universal interconnectedness and peace.”Did your tech background inform the book?
Having been a coder for more than 20 years,
I’ve come to view artificial intelligence as an
extension of the human mind, rather than as
a separate entity. Unfortunately, the very term
artificial connotes a division between humans
and AI agents, an us-vs.-them mentality, which
encourages bias. While the doomsday scenar-
ios seem all too plausible, I wrote Zero
Percenters because I wanted to push past the
bias to explore some questions about AI and
consciousness that I couldn’t find discussed
elsewhere. To my surprise, the answers I stumbled upon gave me cause
for far more optimism than I had expected.Our review called Zero Percenters “a fable of how technological
liberation from the flesh might lead to mass enlightenment.” Can
you elaborate?
Contemporary culture continuously reinforces the idea that we are
defined by our bodies, our egos, our thoughts, and our emotions. Some
of us are supermodels; others are not. Some of us are rich and powerful;
others are not. Some of us have voices that get heard; others do not.
Not surprisingly, we often believe that there must be some coherent
explanation for these enormous differences. But when the inhabitants
of Zero Percenters digitize their bodies and enter a new world of equal
opportunity for all, they find a way to step beyond this belief, which
opens the door to a revised understanding of “self.” Ultimately, they
come to realize that the illusion of being separate entities is what
caused their suffering in the first place. Thus, they decide to leave
behind the trappings of their so-called identities.What’s next for you?
My next novel, while not a sequel, will continue to focus on the possi-
bilities of meaningful companionship between humans and robots. It’s
the year 2044, and climate change has forced humans to live at high
altitudes. Tired of being confined to her alpine village, a teenage girl
stows away on a spaceship piloted by a robot whose mission is to deflect
the overpowering heat of the sun.For more, visit booklife.com/gruskyQ&A SPONSORED