Gary North

June 30, 2009

A friend of mine has a unique selling proposition: he was the only Ph.D-holding historian to witness the Kennedy assassination.

Do you think there is a market for a book here? I do. So does he.

For over four decades, he has studied the assassination. He has taught history classes on it. He has had hundred of students dig into the files.

He has been writing a book on this for 30 years. He never finishes. I am afraid he will die before going public.

Yesterday, I outlined the following marketing strategy for him.

1. Create a WordPress blog on the assassination. (Pay $5/month to avoid ads.)

2. Create a separate forum that is linked to the blog. (Use Hostgator: unlimited domains)
3. Do a series of brief YouTube videos on aspects of the event. Create a JFK channel. Talking head. Free.

4. Direct viewers to your blog and forum on each video.

5. Build a readership.

6. Self-publish the book (Lightning Source). Make 70% per sale, since you sell to your own list.

7. Include a CD-ROM with links to the evidence.

8. Update forever.

9. Create a mailing list.

Notice my strategy: multiple outlets, all free or very cheap. Each outlet moves the reader to a sale.

Develop followers. Develop mailing lists (www.Aweber.com). Contact your readers for free.

By eliminating the middle man, you keep the bulk of the profits from all sales. Don't share what you don't need to share. "Do not render unto middlemen the things that need not belong to middlemen."

Authors no longer need to get their books published by a third party publisher. They should self-publish, get lots of sales, and then approach a publisher with evidence of sales. They can demand and get a 15% royalty, plus a large advance payment against royalties. This forces the book company to spend a lot of marketing money.