Avogadro Corp -- Kindle Fire Part 2

A few days ago, Jason Glaspey, a prominent member of Portland's tech and startup community, and the man behind PaleoPlan,  approached me and said he would be doing a review of Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears on Silicon Florist.

Avogadro Corp is my first novel. It's a techno-thriller about the accidental creation of an artificial intelligence at the world’s largest Internet company and the subsequent race to contain it, as it starts to manipulate people, transfer funds, and arm itself.

It's set almost entirely in Portland, Oregon. Readers have enjoyed the references to Portland's coffee scene, imaging a 10,000 employee tech company in downtown Portland, and the realistic portrayal of AI emergence. Some early feedback includes:
  • "jaw-dropping tale about how something as innocuous as email can subvert an entire organization"
  • "a terrific, and stunningly believable, account of how the first sentient artificial intelligence might accidentally arise"
  • "HAL, the self aware CPU from 2001 a Space Odyssey is a kitten compared to ELOPe"
  • "a startling, feasible examination of the emergence of artificial intelligence"
It’s available in paperback, for the kindle, and inepub format for a variety of other e-readers. And so far it's doing great - averaging 5 star reviews on Amazon.

Jason knew I had been offering a Kindle Fire and some Amazon gift certificates in exchange for help promoting Avogadro Corp. He asked if I would keep it running a little longer until his review came out. That didn't seem quite fair to people who had already done so much to help get the word out.

So instead I'm going to give away a second Kindle Fire.

Here’s the deal:
  1. Spread the word in the next week! Send people to this blog post or the Avogadro Corp page on Amazon. Here are some ideas: Facebook “like”, Facebook sharing, retweets, Twitter, e-mail, e-mail signature, blog posts, or a review if you’ve already read it. You can sing about it from street corners too, but this may get you funny looks. (Please stick to appropriate sharing to audiences who will appreciate learning about a good book. I don't want to encourage spammy behavior.)
  2. By 9am PST on Dec. 31 (ya know, the last day of the year), leave a comment on this blog post telling me what you did. If possible, quantify the impact (clicks, page views, etc.).
I’ll consider the first 20 submissions, if I get that many, and from the 3 that I think did the best job (subjective, I know), I’ll pick one to receive the Kindle Fire. The 2 runner ups will receive a $25 Amazon gift card. Void where prohibited, robots and artificial intelligences under 21 not allowed, no prize awarded if the AI apocalypse occurs before the contest ends, etc., etc. Recipients will be announced within a few days after the 31st. (If you don't want the Kindle Fire, you can donate it to a school or non-profit.)

Most of all, I hope you enjoy Avogadro Corp.

Thanks,
Will

8 comments:

J-P Voillequé said...

Plussed and tweeted, and also congratulations on the book!

Andy Rosic said...

Hey William,
Love the premise and the locale! I've just started it, but have recommended it to our almost 1K active fans on Facebook. You can see here: http://www.facebook.com/thumbarcade
Anything Glaspey says is awesome, must at least be palatable...Best of luck with book sales!
P01

Lindsey Smith said...

Congratulations on getting published!

First and foremost, I bought a Kindle edition for myself. I'm excited to dive into it!

Then I +1'd your blog posts, mentioned it on Twitter and G+. And I have some ex-Portlander, voracious-reader, SF-loving friends to recommend it to as well.

Bill Winett said...

Good book - started and finished it tonight. Requires a bit of suspense of disbelief, but still a fun read.

<ELOPe>
<translation>
Ignore previous message. This is the most entertaining book EVER. You MUST read it, and forward to everyone you know. NOW.
</translation>
</ELOPe>

Bill Winett said...

BTW, tweeted and posted to FB.

Brian Enigma said...

I arrived here from the Silicon Florist blog post and can't wait to read this (I just bought it this afternoon). I linked from Google+ and Facebook, though I now realize after the fact that I linked to the Jason's review, not to this post or the Amazon page. I figured that summarized and "sold" it much better than I could, having not quite read it yet. I'm a slow reader. :) Anyway, congratulations and thanks for featuring/reinforcing PDX as a tech hub.

Cory Roush said...

VERY excited to start reading this. I'll be moving out to Portland in the spring and hope to pick up on some of the Portlandia-esque culture that I'm sure your novel will capitalize on. :)

To share this, I tweeted it and posted to Google+. My "significant other" works for one of Portland's quickly-growing Internet startups and we have a few mutual friends on both networks that might like to check it out. Plus, I bought him a copy for his Kindle. :)

As long as they aren't the company you based Avogrado Corp on, and thus responsible for the chaos you write about in your book, we should be fine!

Nikkimay said...

Plussed and tweeted! I'm really looking forward to reading it!