Peak Collectivism

submitted by jwithrow.Peak Collectivism

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Peak Collectivism

August 7, 2015
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P closed out Thursday at $2,079. Gold closed at $1,090 per ounce. Oil checked out just above $45 per barrel, and the 10-year Treasury rate closed at 2.27%. Bitcoin is trading around $281 per BTC today.

Dear Journal,

The Musings of a Wayward Philosopher launch has gone fairly well this week. The ebook is currently ranked #1 in Economics>Commerce and #1 in Education&Reference in Amazon’s Kindle store. The paperback ranked as high as #50 in Economics>Commerce but has faded back a bit since. I noticed a big spike in interest while it was ranked top-50. This trial-and-error learning process has been exciting!

What’s even more exciting is the fact that this wasn’t even possible just twenty short years ago. The gatekeepers have fallen!

The publishing arena was heavily guarded prior to the rise of the internet. The only way to publish a book and get it circulating beyond your immediate network was to work with a large publishing company. This meant that your book had to conform to their ideas, requirements, and biases. The dynamic was the exact same in the broadcast media realm. Apart from local newspapers you were only going to get “news” that had been sifted through a major media company’s filter. Continue reading “Peak Collectivism”

Musings of a Wayward Philosopher

submitted by jwithrow.Musings of a Wayward Philosopher

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Musings of a Wayward Philosopher

August 4, 2015
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P closed out Monday at $2,091. Gold closed at $1,089 per ounce. Oil checked out just under $46 per barrel, and the 10-year Treasury rate closed at 2.21%. Bitcoin is trading around $278 per BTC today.

Dear Journal,

We launched the inaugural volume of Musings of a Wayward Philosopher yesterday with relative success. The ebook is currently ranked #1 in Economics>Commerce and #3 in Education&Reference in Amazon’s Kindle store. The paperback is ranked #127 in Economics>Commerce after day 1.

I am slowly learning how to market online, and I must say it is extremely uncomfortable. I started day one of the book campaign off by running a Facebook Ad. I stopped using Facebook personally more than three years ago once I learned that their entire business model was to take your personal information and sell it to the highest bidder. Then I learned they may or may not be handing your personal information over to the Feds for free also. Needless to say, I don’t care much for Facebook and yesterday I paid them to run an ad for me. I’m not too proud about that, but I can’t dispute the fact that it is a medium for reaching a lot of people. Facebook told 7,688 people about my book for me. They may also tell the good folks in our intelligence agencies about my book at the end of this month, I’m not sure. I suppose they are welcome to pick up a copy also.

After setting up the Ad, I spent the better part of yesterday submitting my book to a multitude of online directories geared towards independent authors. I paid a handful of them a few bucks for a guaranteed spot on their feature list. Though tedious, I didn’t mind this method of marketing as much. These directories have built a following of people interested in self-published books and they promise to tell their following about your book for a small fee. That’s a win-win. Continue reading “Musings of a Wayward Philosopher”