Dear Alex, Ruth, Mei Ha and Mary Helen,

Below is an email I received not so long ago from the head of a major scholarly press (please check out the note below before you read this letter from me, Richard K.).

He says that he thinks I'm one of the "most important thinkers in the world today" and that he wants me to allow him to "bring out print editions of my books." He says he would be happy to publish "whatever you write in the form that I have written it" and will do it at "no cost to me." He says that whether I want to do this or not, he can think of "no other way" that he can "pay homage to me."

For most authors, this would be a "dream come true." He'll publish whatever I like in whatever form I like--at no cost to me. Wow! 

However, I've been a publisher for a long time (although not as long as I've been a writer, which began when I was six years old). Even if the publisher "took me on"--this would involve a great deal of time and effort for me: not easy to organize my writings, type things up and send things to the publisher in a coherent form, work with the publisher on formatting and editing, receive and correct proofs, etc. It's not magic.

Probably take a year at least to get a single 200 page book into print and "published" (the word "publish" means proclaim, which means "telling the world" as my Aunt Dorothy used to say). There's a big difference between printing a book--and publishing it.

Let's say I did spend the time and effort to get a book into print with this publisher. Most scholarly presses specialize in selling books to libraries (too expensive for individuals to purchase). Let's say the press sold my book to 200 libraries (very lucky if one sells a book to this many libraries--Nations have the Right to Kill is listed in the WorldCat database as having sold 206 copies, although probably counting World-Wide sales and sales to individuals I may have sold 600 copies).

But what does it take to sell an individual title? Probably LSS generated $9000 in revenue selling Nations. Probably cost us $35,000 to get these sales--in terms of staff time, putting the book together, editing, printing, mailing free copies to reviewers, listing on Amazon and other sites, etc., etc., etc..

BIG LOSS TO PUBLISH A SCHOLARLY BOOK. If you want to make money selling a book, you'd better be Obama or Kim Kardashian or Howard Stern.

In any case, I don't have the time to spend working on publishing in the traditional manner, which means essentially "getting a book into libraries." It's basically an immortality fantasy: A BOOK IN A LIBRARY WILL LAST FOREVER. Yes, but if you put something onto the web it will also last a long time. And be much more accessible than if a book is in 200 libraries.

Let's say the press who wants to publish my book did get it into 200 libraries. Maybe it would be "taken out" and read four times a year at each library (by a student or Professor). You can see where I'm going with this. Apart from the "thrill" of being published (yes, I remember it well when 1000 copies of Hitler's Ideology was delivered to my apartment in 30+ cartons), there is no realistic reason to "get published" in the "traditional" manner.

e-Books are a possibility. We do have a title that Orion and I worked on, already listed on Amazon. I prematurely sent it out for review--and received several great reviews by important scholars. It's called Hitler's Holocaust: The Logic of War and Genocide (Kindle Edition). Image below; a better image on Amazon.

Well, what about this? Well, just because it's available on Amazon...means nothing whatsoever. One has to market the book. This means putting together a substantial mailing list, sending promotional pieces out, and using various "tricks" that are available to make a Kindle Book a best seller. I don't have the staff to do this now.

I've looked into how to make a Kindle Book a best-seller. There is a company that will teach you how to do it through a four-month course (cost of $8000). There is another company that will take the entire process into their hands (cost $40,000). My book is selling for $3.98. Marketing it on a large scale...for financial reasons...doesn't make sense.

However, it's good for me to have something to sell when I begin performing on podcasts and radio-programs, etc. The objective here would be to make myself (and my ideas) "famous." This will happen.

But the first strategy is simply to make my ideas known and famous among a group of great scholars. These are the people I'm marketing to through iContact. About 1000 of them, but I'm narrowing things down to perhaps 80. This is what I'm going to do next: market to a limited number of prominent scholars who are familiar with my ideas.

I know they are familiar with my ideas because iContact provides information on which people "open" which Newsletters. Some people have opened certain Newsletters 70-100 times. I know who they are. This means I also know which topic each scholar is most interested in.

I will market to these people: getting them to comment or "reflect" upon my ideas by authoring a Newsletter. I'll give them their own "platform." I'll help these scholars to become famous themselves--by promoting their books, papers, YouTube lectures, etc.

The crux of this new strategy is communication. I've received feedback on my work recently), but not enough. I haven't encouraged or asked for feedback. I've been so busy developing the ideas.

Now I'm shifting gears (which is why I'm able to write as I'm writing now): VERY LITTLE NEW PROMOTION OF MY IDEAS. Now I move toward promotion--getting my ideas known; receiving feedback. Encouraging other people to write for my Newsletter, making this the prime space on the Internet for publishing on the dynamics of collective forms of violence.

Best, 
Richard K./Dr. K.