So get your “Tiered Democratic Governance” at today’s low prices!
Trying to promote a new democracy to a world that obviously needs a new democracy is worse than herding cats. At least with herding cats, I can find a few cats to like me.
Well, it’s not that bad. These days, I have about 20 lukewarm TDG fans on Medium. But if they don’t become TDG workers, the current democracy stays in place!
A Famous Political Science Book
About five years ago, I bought a political science e-book from a prominent political scientist. There are two reasons I should have not bought this book. First, I don’t regard political scientists as wise. They do not know what is wrong, so they cannot fix anything. I wasn’t expecting any great insights from this book, which later proved to be true. Second, this e-book was priced at C$35, which was beyond my good sense for what to pay for an e-book — especially from a political scientist. But I thought I should get a current glimpse of what the “experts” are saying as the US democracy seemed to be falling apart.
While my cognitive dissonance needed some reinforcing, I glad I bought this book. Now I know for sure my reasoning is sound: the political scientists do not know what they are doing.
I reviewed this book, wrote a Medium article, and later moved it to the TDG blog. I often reference this review in my political musings.
But C$35 seems to be too much to spend on a book with no solution, right?
TDG Sales
Here is my e-book sales history for the past four years:
· 2026: 0
· 2025: 1
· 2024: 0
· 2023: 2
Not stellar at all. And you can see, I really do not have anything to lose trying something off the wall.
A New Marketing Trick
Thirty-three years ago, I took a marketing course from Heriot-Watt University. While I wasn’t smart enough to pass their exams, I sure learned a lot about business. One axiom from that course is that “a higher price gives a perception of quality.” The course gave several examples of products that could not sell. So the brand managers raised the prices, did nothing else, and these products sold much better. So I am going to try this trick.
Here are the current prices for the four TDG ebooks:
· Tiered Democratic Governance: $8
· Diary of a Future Politician: $4
· Confessions of a Future Politician: $3
· Circles of a Future Politician: $3
All prices in US$, which were translated into local currencies based on exchange rates of five years ago and a little rounding.
And here are my new prices to be set in early June:
· Tiered Democratic Governance: $30
· Diary of a Future Politician: $16
· Confessions of a Future Politician: $12
· Circles of a Future Politician: $12
In essence, I am quadrupling my prices.
With the new prices, TDG book will be about the same price as the famous political science book. The prices now suggest similar quality.
With Kindle, I am subject to paying 30% as an American withholding tax — even though I am not an American citizen and have not been in the USA for nine years. So there will be a 30% premium for US-bound ebooks. My main book sells for $39 in the USA.
I am hoping that the algorithms from my two e-book retailers (Kindle and Kobo) will see the higher commissions that come from higher prices and show these books on the feed more often.
As well, Kindle does have a feature where I can buy spots on the feed. I tried this, and the business matrix was not there at $8. But maybe it will be there for $30. I will spend $100 on Kindle ads and see what happens.
And if this quadrupling does not work, I can try even higher prices. Selling Tiered Democratic Governance for $90 is not out of the question.
The Sales Pitch
Remember, I have a solution. The famous political science book only offers trifling repairs to the current system. There is more value in buying the TDG book.
So buy your TDG books now, before the new prices come into effect.
These kinds of schmaltzy advertising tricks have worked before on many other products. But I don’t think the 10 Medium readers coming to this pitch will fall for it. Rather I am hoping to shake up the e-book retailer algorithms. I have nothing to lose.
TDG-Zoom Meetings
I am currently hosing Zoom meetings. The objective is to have people interested in TDG meet me in person, and we would discuss the TDG and democracy in general. A good place to kill an hour, meet some interesting people, have an interesting discussion, and learn some new things.
I recognize that Medium is not a good place to put notices for Zoom meetings. While I tack on the notice in my weekly article that precedes the meeting, the 10 readers who see that article are not enough to expect a conversion. But my two other forums have marketing potential.
For about a year, the TDG website has been getting about 25 visitors a week. While they don’t stay long, about 200 of them have found their way to subscribe to the TDG newsletter. I send a new newsletter a few days before the Zoom meeting to directly advertise the Zoom meeting.
I have about 300 followers on Mastodon (a Twitter clone). A day before the meeting, I send out two notices. About an hour before each meeting, I make another post — with the direct Zoom link.
I set up four meetings on April 5. Only one person attended.
I set up four meetings on May 12. No one attended.
So this Zoom marketing seems not to be working out well. I should not have high expectations. I will do another four sets of Zoom meetings, through June to September.
Maybe Oprah will find me and make me a celebrity! Not likely.
My TDG Future
Currently, I am writing one Medium article a week. While I still enjoy the challenge of political writing to work in a TDG angle, I am still a bottom writer on Medium. My articles seldom reach 300 claps. Not a great result for seven years and many hours on Medium.
I have put 560 articles into the TDG Blog. When I am at my computer, I post one of those articles every two hours on Mastodon. It takes about six weeks to work through the blog in this way.
Even though my time involvement is much less on Mastodon than on Medium, there hasn’t been much reward from the Mastodon side either.
So I am contemplating retiring both my Medium and Mastodon activities.
My free time can go elsewhere. The fourth edition of the TDG book was completed in 2017. My writing skills have improved. I have discovered a few more “moving parts” of the TDG that should go into this book. A rewrite is in order. Maybe a big rewrite. If the rewrite happens, I should not let Medium and Mastodon distract me from that rewrite.
I have made some preparations for my work to live on after my expiration date. Maybe I should make a few more preparations.
Conclusion
The political scientists will only lead us to the world we already have. With the TDG, we are in control of our future. We need to invest in that future, not follow the empty promises from those who want to govern us.
Buy the TDG e-books now before the prices go up in June!
Published on Medium 2026
Addendum
1) Nobody bought the books before the prices went up.
2) I have not yet tried the Amazon feature to give my books a higher ranking.
3) I have shut down the TDG-Zoom meetings.
4) I have stopped most TDG marketing to focus on the rewrite of the TDG book.
