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

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<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0345420926/r/002-8478902-4743024
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