X-Message-Number: 10097 From: "Halperin, Jim" <> Subject: RE: Sequel To "THE FIRST IMMORTAL"? Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 19:24:02 -0500 Hi Olaf, Thanks for writing me about a possible sequel. I'm going to post this answer on Cryonet and sci.cryonics so that the rest of the cryonics community can see it. I do read Cryonet nearly every day, and saw the messages to which you refer. I agree with most of what George Smith says about putting more of a scientific/Madison Avenue slant on cryonics marketing. I continue to believe that the main problem with cryonics is that it's poorly marketed and too difficult and expensive to sign up for. (The other candidate for our main problem, lack of cryonic research funds, IMO, could be solved much more quickly if there were more of us.) At book signings, I've been asking members of my audience whether they would accept a free pill that would make them eternally youthful and allow them to live forever if they so chose. Only about 50% say yes. I also ask how many would, assuming equal cost, prefer to be buried, cremated or frozen. 70% choose being frozen! This seems a paradox, but probably has something to do with the way our brains are wired to analyze choices. Unfortunately, no cryonics organization has scientifically tested enough alternatives to make the sign-up process more automatic and friction-free. Maybe we should sell cryonics in much the same way Allstate sells insurance. (i.e., what we may need is a cryonics sales/marketing organization, honestly run, but with the most sophisticated methods, and proper financial incentives for salespeople or "agents," so as to encourage successful recruitment.) As for writing another cryonics book, I don't think I'm up to it any time soon unless TFI becomes a major bestseller in paperback (out in December, 1998). But it hasn't sold well enough in hardcover to justify spending the next year of my life writing a sequel. I have a successful coin business, so I don't write novels for the money (in fact, I'm donating all my royalties to health and education charities). I do write for an audience, though, and I want my work to be read. So my next few novels will, hopefully, be more mainstream. (Maybe if one of them becomes a runaway bestseller, more readers will gravitate toward my two earlier works.) Meanwhile, I'll continue to involve myself in cryonics, and to contribute to and invest in cryonics-related projects that seem worthwhile. And if I meet some business/marketing dynamo who wants me to put up some capital to set up a cryonics-related business, I will seriously consider any such proposal. Best regards to all, Jim Halperin Web sites: <http://www.truthmachine.com><http://www.firstimmortal.com><http:www.her itagecoin.com> or to post a review of The First Immortal <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0345420926/r/002-8478902-4743024 > Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10097