Bryan VanDyke ’00 Uses AI to Sell Novel About AI: ‘In Our Likeness’

In Our Likeness, a debut novel from writing alum Bryan VanDyke ’00, released on September 1 from Little A, a literary imprint of Amazon Publishing. The novel, a science fiction fable about the possibility and terror of new technology, reflects VanDyke’s own fascination with AI, a fascination that would directly help him sell the book.

The story follows Graham Gooding, a higher-up at an innovative tech startup who stumbles on an algorithm with an unexpected twist; changes made in the program are then mirrored in the real world. With just a few quick commands, he can literally change reality. Inspired and disturbed, Graham is quick to realize the grave possibilities of this new tech; and he’s not the only one.

For VanDyke, the novel was an opportunity to bring his background as a digital strategist into his work as a writer, something he’d previously been hesitant to do. “I decided to try something different this time—and since I’d never managed to sell a novel, a different approach seemed like a pretty good idea,” said VanDyke.

Inspiration struck when he began to consider the possibilities of rapidly evolving AI, in particular chatbots. “What if the code behind the chatbot was something so good that it really disrupted everything?” he found himself asking. “What if the tech-pundit promise of changing the world was true, literally?”

Still, it was a long journey from inception to publication for VanDyke. Facing mounting rejections in 2022, he was almost ready to abandon the project, before getting creative with his submission process. “I did something that I’d never done before: I described the book to OpenAI’s Chat GPT and asked it to write a query letter,” he recalled. “The letter that it generated was so good that I sent it unedited to an agent, with only a brief PS from me that admitted where the text came from.”  

It was a classic example of life imitating art, and its fruits were immediate. “I got a response within fourteen minutes,” recalled VanDyke. “That same agent went on to become my representative; and to sell my debut book to Little A.” The gambit was one that would resonate even in publication. “Suddenly, it wasn’t impossible to understand how to position the book. It was a novel about artificial intelligence and how it could—would?—change the world, something that was happening in real time everywhere you looked.”

Accordingly, VanDyke remained apprehensive about the six months between final edits and publication. “That’s a long time by most measures, but it’s an absolute eternity when your book’s about artificial intelligence.” His solution was an elegant one, “I worked to make this a book about technologists, not technology; a novel about people, their foibles, their false pretenses, their failures and aspirations and fears.”

It’s a back to basics approach that may seem at odds for someone living on tech’s cutting edge, but it’s one that VanDyke is quick to champion for writers looking to make their start. “Find something you love to write about and write about it in the way that you would love to read,” he offered. “All the other stuff—publishing, getting the opinions of readers, getting recognized or paid—that’s another job, and it’s often out of your control. The first part has to be enough.”