I made the unlikely transition a couple years back from tech entrepreneur (Listen.com/Rhapsody) to science fiction author (you can read more about that in my previous post on Wired). In approaching publishers, my agent positioned my odd background as a positive: Entrepreneurs are self-starters, she’d say. Think of everything this guy will do on his own to make the book a success!
Read the prologue to Year Zero.
Random House took me on, and I indeed started acting like the CEO of the world’s smallest startup. I launched a website, started an eensy Facebook marketing campaign (which has yielded all of 831 fans so far) and went after book bloggers like a headhunter glad-handing engineers in a Mountain View bar.
Another thing I expected to do for myself was to read my audiobook — because, like so many authors today, I can read. But that’s where Random House drew the line. Sure, they said, you might read occasionally, in your spare time. Perhaps you even close the shutters and read aloud. But we need a professional for this.
Having lived in Mubarak’s Egypt for a while, I have a thing for nepotism, so I agreed — on the condition that they hire a friend or close relative of mine for the job. After rejecting my entire family tree, they agreed to hire my buddy John Hodgman, based on his credentials as a Daily Show Resident Expert, human-shaped PC and professional narrator.
The video above of Hodgman and me bantering in the studio will show you what a smart choice Random House made. Hodgman is smooth, poised and mellifluous, while I keep darting my head around like a duck trying to spot the next handout of bread from a friendly crowd. Luckily this habit of mine — which I only became aware of when I saw this video for the first time — did not interfere with the actual writing of my book, as I hope you can tell from the first chapter, which you can find here.
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Year Zero will be published July 10.
