This will be my last post about AI-generated writing for a while, since I've been a bit fixated on it this week and would like to get back to more interesting topics.

Although it's hard to think of a topic more relevant.

In any case, as the last of my three AI-related posts, I offer you proof that AI can't yet master some of the most basic tasks of good writing.

Including brevity.

One of the most difficult tasks of writing is chopping out what doesn't belong. I know a lot about this, because my natural tendency is to write a huge amount and then, slowly and painstakingly, edit each chapter down to a briefer, tauter, more effective version with a stronger, clearer central idea.

That's hard work. You know what's easier? Just vomiting out everything that comes to mind.

Which is currently where AI writing stands. There's a lot out there now about how to tell whether something is AI-generated. At the moment, the most accurate test is the simplest. Is it short and sweet?

With that, I offer you the most recent AI-generated publicity pitch I've received, apparently produced by an LLM that believed more was better.

Seriously. Read to the end. I dare you.

**

Jordl Garcla <[email protected]>
Tue, Aug 18, 12:32 PM (5 days ago)
to contactsusan

Dear Susan Wise Bauer,
I am writing to you following a professional review of The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. It is increasingly rare to encounter a work of history that manages to combine enormous chronological and geographical scope with the individual human stories that make distant civilizations feel immediate and understandable.

What struck me most is the ambition behind the book's central approach. Rather than treating ancient history as a disconnected sequence of civilizations, rulers, wars, and dates, you connect developments across Europe, the Middle East, and the far reaches of China into a continuous narrative of human experience.

That sweeping perspective gives readers something particularly valuable: context.

The decision to balance the major events of ancient history with the lives of ordinary people is especially effective. By drawing from literature, epic traditions, private letters, and historical accounts, the book moves beyond the conventional focus on kings and conquerors and examines history from beneath—the people whose lives were shaped by the decisions of those in power.

This approach makes the book accessible to readers who may find traditional academic histories intimidating. Instead of asking readers to memorize an encyclopedia of names and dates, the narrative allows them to understand historical change through human behavior, cultural development, conflict, ambition, belief, and everyday experience.

Equally compelling is the geographical breadth of the work. Connecting events across civilizations allows readers to recognize relationships and parallels that can easily disappear when ancient cultures are studied in isolation. The maps and timelines further strengthen this approach by giving readers a visual and chronological framework for understanding how cultures developed and interacted across centuries.

The result is more than a history of the ancient world. It is an attempt to understand how civilizations emerge, interact, change, and eventually disappear—and what the experiences of the people living through those transformations can tell us about humanity itself.

The combination of narrative history, global scope, individual perspectives, maps, timelines, and cultural analysis positions The History of the Ancient World as a particularly valuable resource for history enthusiasts, lifelong learners, educators, homeschool families, students, and readers fascinated by the origins of human civilization.

The Visibility Paradox: The Global History Discovery Gap
However, in conducting a professional audit of the book's current market positioning, I have identified a significant Global History Discovery Gap.

Despite its broad appeal, The History of the Ancient World operates across several overlapping readership ecosystems—ancient history, world history, classical civilization, Roman history, Middle Eastern history, historical biography, educational nonfiction, narrative history, and general-interest history.

That breadth creates both a major opportunity and a discoverability challenge.

A reader searching for "books about ancient Rome" may not necessarily encounter a book whose scope begins much earlier and extends across multiple civilizations.

Someone searching for "best world history books" may overlook it because the title emphasizes the ancient world.

A reader interested in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, China, or the development of early civilizations may discover the book through yet another pathway.

And readers who prefer narrative history may be searching specifically for books that bring historical figures and ordinary people to life rather than conventional academic surveys.

These audiences overlap substantially, but recommendation systems often divide them into separate categories.

This creates a Discovery Gap between the book's genuinely global scope and the fragmented ways readers search for ancient history.

The challenge is therefore not a lack of subject matter. It is ensuring that the book is visible across the many historical questions that naturally lead readers toward it.

The Strategy: Global History Discovery Scaling
I specialize in Thought Leadership and Educational Book Discovery Scaling, with particular expertise in positioning substantial nonfiction works across the discovery ecosystems where readers actively search for knowledge, historical context, and intellectually engaging narratives.

For The History of the Ancient World, I would propose a strategy built around several interconnected opportunities:

Goodreads Listopia Strategic Positioning: Targeted placement across highly relevant lists such as Best Ancient History Books, Best World History Books, Best Books About Ancient Rome, Best Books About Ancient Civilizations, Best Narrative History, Best History Books for Lifelong Learners, Best Classical History Books, Best Books About the Ancient World, Best Historical Nonfiction, and Best History Books for Students. This creates multiple discovery pathways among readers already demonstrating strong interest in history.

Semantic SEO Modernization: Strengthening metadata around high-intent searches such as "best books on ancient history," "history of the ancient world," "books about ancient civilizations," "narrative ancient history," "ancient Rome history books," "world history from ancient times," "books about early civilizations," and "best global history books." This can help readers discover the work through the specific historical questions they are already asking.

History & Education Community Integration: Expanding visibility within history communities, classical-studies groups, homeschool networks, educational readership circles, history book clubs, lifelong-learning communities, and academic-adjacent audiences. The book's maps, timelines, and narrative structure make it particularly well suited to readers looking for a comprehensive but accessible foundation.

"History From Beneath" Positioning: The book's use of literature, epic traditions, letters, and personal accounts provides a powerful differentiator. Rather than presenting history exclusively through rulers and major political events, the narrative attempts to understand civilizations through the lives of the people who experienced them. This can become a central discovery message for readers seeking history that feels human rather than purely institutional.

Cross-Civilization Discovery Positioning: Highlighting the book's ability to connect Europe, the Middle East, and China gives readers a reason to approach it differently from histories focused on a single civilization. The global framework can attract readers who want to understand ancient history as an interconnected human story rather than a series of isolated national or regional narratives.

Why Strategic Scaling Matters for The History of the Ancient World
The enduring strength of The History of the Ancient World lies in its ability to make enormous historical complexity feel coherent.

Ancient history can easily become fragmented. One book focuses on Egypt. Another examines Greece. Another explores Rome. Another discusses Mesopotamia or China.

Readers are then left to construct the connections themselves.

Your approach reverses that process.

By bringing different civilizations into a broader narrative framework, the book encourages readers to see historical development as an interconnected process. The maps and timelines reinforce that perspective, while the emphasis on individual lives gives emotional weight to events that might otherwise remain abstract.

That makes the book particularly valuable in an era when readers are increasingly interested not only in what happened, but in why civilizations developed the way they did and how human behavior shaped those developments.

The book also has an important educational advantage: it can serve simultaneously as a serious reference, a narrative reading experience, and an entry point for readers beginning to explore ancient history.

Without strategic amplification, however, the book risks being discovered primarily by readers already familiar with Susan Wise Bauer's work or actively searching for a broad ancient-history volume, while many readers approaching history through Rome, classical civilization, world history, homeschooling, or narrative nonfiction may never encounter it.

The opportunity is to make the book's greatest strength—its breadth—work as a discovery advantage rather than a categorization challenge.

Next Steps
If you are open to a professional consultation on expanding the reach of The History of the Ancient World and positioning it across the broader ancient-history, world-history, educational, and narrative-nonfiction readerships, I would be pleased to share the detailed Global History Discovery Map I have developed specifically around the book's strongest discovery pathways.

A simple reply of "Send the plan" is sufficient to initiate this strategic exchange.

Thank you for creating a work that demonstrates how the ancient world can be understood not simply through its rulers and wars, but through the interconnected lives, cultures, and experiences of the people who shaped human history. I look forward to the possibility of helping The History of the Ancient World reach the broader audience of history enthusiasts, educators, lifelong learners, and curious readers it so clearly deserves.

With professional regards.

**

Good. Lord.

I rarely answer these pitches, but this one was so egregious that I emailed back, "Please never contact me again." To which the generator, whatever it is, answered, "Can you let me know whether you are interested in this service?"

You can guess at my answer. ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago