Aziz Ansari sells book on modern romance, technology for reported $3.5 million

If you’ve seen Aziz Ansari perform live anytime in the past year, you’ve likely heard him ask audience members about their experiences in dating and technology.

It’s made for some fun crowd work in what Ansari has turned a running dialogue with the audience about what’s appropriate and not in a world where texting and social media has changed your perceptions and expectations about romance and relationships. And now the comedian is turning that dialogue into a book, which he sold for a reported advance of $3.5 million, according to Publishers Weekly.

Penguin Group announced it’d bought Ansari’s first book on Thursday.

Penguin Group’s Scott Moyers said: “As millions of people know, so much of Aziz Ansari’s brilliant humor comes from grasping the hidden forces that govern our everyday lives. I’m delighted but not surprised that he is the one who is going to make sense of the strange new world that singles have to navigate today, one with powerful new tools for connection, which are also hideous new sources of shame, anxiety and obsession. And he’s not messing around—he’s enlisting the aide of a formidable crew of experts, and conducting his own fascinating, and hilarious, experiments. This will be a funny book that also shines a bright light on a whole new landscape, which incidentally concerns the future makeup of the species.”

Ansari added, in the press release:

“You know when you text someone you’re romantically interested in and you don’t hear anything back and then you see them post a photo of a pizza on Instagram? That’s exactly what I want this book to deal with. These are strange conundrums that no generation has ever faced before and it’s a fascinating jumping off point for what I hope will be a very interesting book about modern courtship.”

Richard Abate of 3 Arts Entertainment and Mike Berkowitz of APA repped Ansari for the sale.

The book is tentatively scheduled for publication in September 2015.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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