Topic: Monetary Policy
E-book of The Money Suckers Launched As Free Download Almost a full year after I started writing my novel, I finally finished and published it online today. Hooray!by Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Monday, October 19, 2009
Nearly a full year after I began the project, I'm pleased to announce the release of my new novel, The Money Suckers, as a free online e-book. I've created a "book trailer," a short YouTube video (similar to a movie trailer) to help promote the book.
The story is set in October 2008 as the financial crisis rivets the attention of the world. Top banker Justin Knight sees evidence that the crisis was actually planned by a conspiracy that includes the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and his uncle, the CEO of Hanover-Rush bank, the largest bank in America and one of the largest in the world.
Knight's daughter, Michaela, is kidnapped in order to pressure him to turn Justin's evidence over to the bank. Even worse, he learns that his late wife may have been killed by the same forces who caused the crisis. As more of the conspiracy emerges, it seems to reach deep into the government as well. At the center is the shadowy Committee for International Consolidation, which wields incredible power in the background, guiding global forces to suit the financial and political interests of the top political and financial leaders around the world.
Knight eventually comes face to face with a monumental decision. Will he reveal to the world what he knows? If he does, he could lose his daughter, his top position, and his wealth. If he doesn't reveal what he knows, he'll lose his self-respect.
The novel involves action and adventure elements as it steadily builds the reader's suspense right up to the climax. While the story is fictional, the banking and monetary system principles presented in the story are clearly explained, easily understood, and are true to reality.
The e-book is currently available for reading online in HTML format and in a downloadable PDF document. Over the next few days, I also plan to add e-book formats for Kindle, Sony Reader, and a number of the other most popular e-book devices.
Attribution — You must attribute the novel to Walt Thiessen.
Noncommercial — You may not use this novel for commercial purposes. In other words, you cannot sell it on your own without the author's written permission.
No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work to create a new version of the work. For example, you may not create a screenplay based on this novel without the author's written permission.
The plan is to build popularity for the e-book as a means toward fundraising in order to pay for printing a hardcover edition of the book. I hope to get it printed in time for Christmas delivery, although at this point the time frame is going to be very, very tight. Printing a book takes 5-6 weeks, so raising sufficient funds by November 1, 2009 makes it possible to ship the book to buyers by the second week of December...barely enough time if the book can generate enough interest over the next ten days to two weeks.
Once I get the various e-book reader formats added to the website at www.themoneysuckers.com over the next few days, I plan to do some serious marketing of the free e-book. I'm counting on readers to find the story compelling enough that they may want to support it via donations. Any donations will be welcome, of course, but donations of at least $25 will lead to the donor receiving a copy of the book once it's printed, and donations of at least $50 will get a copy signed by the author on the title page. (International donors will be requested to donate $35 and $60 respectively to help cover some of the much higher shipping costs involved in shipping a book overseas).
I've also created an affiliate program. Anyone who wants to help promote the novel need only create an account on the book's website, and they'll have automatic access to custom URLs they can use to help spread the distribution of the novel and point to the donations page on the site. I'll pay 10% to affiliates who succeed in getting visitors to download the e-book (or read it on the site) which results in the reader donating at some point after they read the story. The referral system uses a cookie-based tracking system to identify who originally referred the donor to the site.
I want invite all Nolan Chart readers to visit the site and read all or part of the novel online, and I welcome your feedback about the story!
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Walt Thiessen only and do not represent
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Congratulations and best wishes, a great accomplishment. I support your grassroots efforts and I'll put my order in for the international copy as Im in China right now. Again, my best compliments to your work and good luck !
Congratulations and thank you very much for sharing. But shouldn't you be charging at least something for the e-book? Why would people make a donation if they can get the book for free? I would like to see you get the return on all your expenses and get a profit back. Or is your main goal to spread the message to as many people as possible trhough the fiction/non-fiction book rather than the profits? Or is it that by giving away the e-book, people will make enough donations for the printing orders to become more mainstream and then you make your profit from all the refferals and leads through the website? Or maybe you want as many people as possible to read the e-book for free and then you can have a second career as an event speaker on libertarian issues and money topics where you promote your message but get paid to speak about it?
I am curious, what is your sales/profit strategy with the free e-book?
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2009-10-20 09:17:53
My thanks to both of you!
TRD: You asked why I'm giving away the e-book. I wrote about this previously in my article, Financial Crisis Novel Approaches Launch. Also, what you're asking about is really my marketing plan, which you can read at the book's website.
I read your marketing plan and the previous article. I am definitely interested in how this free e-book marketing plan will turn out more profitable than going against the odds of self-publishing.
I was trying to figure out if free music sharing may work to sell concert tickets then free e-book publishing may work for speaking engagements for a fee.
I certainly hope you make money. I am very curious on how it will be achieved with this marketing plan.
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2009-10-20 16:26:06
Jake: Thanks!
TRD: Well, I have to admit it's a gamble, but I think it's a good gamble. As I discussed in the previous article I mentioned above, the biggest enemy facing a first-time author is anonymity. Add in the fact that the overwhelming majority of book readers do NOT prefer to do their reading online (but rather prefer to hold a book in their hands). Then, top it off with the fact that less than 10% of all book buyers buy e-books. The downside is distinctly limited.
The upside, of course, is that free e-book distribution increases the likelihood that friends will share it with each other. Like I said before, take a look at the article I wrote, Financial Crisis Novel Approaches Launch. It contains a lot of good details about the merits of giving away e-books for marketing purposes.
Walt, I heard you say cookie-based thing, something about capturing the results of affiliates or referrals. (I know that my recap is inexact, but...) I just downloaded tms.pdf at www.themoneysuckers.com.
I came through no affiliate, just typed the addr into the browser.
'Thing is that I didn't enter any information, sign up, register, or log in. Are you collecting IP addresses? Or having affilate landing page(s) with a different experience? I can't imagine how else to record the association or match my download visit with future donations, unless you literally ask donors to identify an affiliate.
Or, is there more to come, like your website will soon begin collecting info for the download?
I'm just curious as a web developer. I realize my question is not germane to the contents of the book.
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