I was invited to speak at the Libertarian Scholars Conference this year and gave a short presentation on The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. Here is the video:
Afterwards, Walter Block suggested that instead of describing actions as ethical or unethical, I should describe actions as being legal or illegal under a libertarian system of law. I received similar feedback from others as well.
Continue reading “Libertarian Scholars Conference 2022”Doug Stewart and Norman Horn invited me onto their podcast for an enjoyable discussion about libertarianism and The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. Click below to visit to the show page:
Thanks to Jacob Lovell for making the introduction!
Cody Cook invited me to be on his podcast Cantus Firmus this week and we had a fun conversation about anarcho-capitalism, ethics, and agorism.
You can visit the show page below to see show notes and links to other episodes.
Bob Murphy had me on his show this week, which was a real treat. We had a great discussion about why libertarian ethics cannot be defined with physics, what an anarcho-capitalist society might look like, and spent some time arguing semantics — in a good way. You can watch the interview below:
Thanks to Jacob Lovell for making it happen!
Before I finished writing The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism, I wondered how many copies I should expect to sell. I didn’t find much data to help me level-set, so I thought it might be useful to others if I published my own data. The upshot is that I sold about 1,000 copies in the first year, but a large percentage of that can be attributed to a single podcast appearance.
I released the book on March 2nd, 2020 in two formats: ebook and paperback. I only sold 2 copies in the first month, and I imagine that both were to friends or family who saw my email announcement. I released a hardcover version in April and an audio book version in May. Then in June sales peaked at 230 copies sold. That spike was thanks to Tom Woods, who invited me to be a guest on his podcast.
Another piece of information that was hard to find was how much incremental sales you should expect by releasing different formats. For example, is it worth the cost and effort of creating an audio book?
Continue reading “sales data”I waited a year before reading any online reviews of The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. My goal was to collect the feedback all at once so I could use it to improve the book and release an update.
Let’s see what people thought:
I spent a lot of time thinking about the title for the book. The first working title was Liberty and Capital. If only I had spoken to Mel, it could have been The Anti-Vax of Political Ideologies.
In an earlier post I mentioned a number of people who helped create the Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism. Conspicuously absent was Michael Malice, who mentored me through the writing and publishing process. He is getting his own post because I thought people would enjoy a little more detail about what it was like working with him.
Dr. Howard Grattan had it right when he described Malice as a modern-day Murray Rothbard. Not for academic work, but for the humor, irreverence, and pure joy that he brings to the libertarian movement. The analogy is also apt because, like Rothbard, Malice builds bridges both inside the movement and with people outside of it.
Continue reading “working with Michael Malice”Jalen Vasquez invited me to be a guest on his show and we had a great conversation about libertarianism, Ron Paul, and the robot apocalypse. Click below to listen to the episode:
Also be sure to check out his recommended book page for some great things to read.
As a software engineer, I use a program called git to track the changes I make to source code files. So, when I started writing The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism, it seemed natural to use git to track changes to the book as I went along. I am glad that I did, because now I can look back and visualize how the manuscript changed over time.
Here is a plot of the word count I had over the four years I spent writing. I averaged a blazing 55 words per day.
Looking at the graph above, a few things jump out at me. Continue reading “writing timeline for The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism”
Dr. Howard Grattan invited me to be on the Honoring Ron Paul podcast this week to discuss The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism, Ron Paul, and the connection between the two. It was great reminiscing about Ron Paul’s presidential campaigns, the good times we had promoting libertarianism, and the friends we made along the way. Click the image below to go to the episode, or listen directly here.
Kris Borer