The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is shopping a book proposal to US publishers that promises to “open your mind in ways you can’t expect … like the moment you first discovered sex or the internet or quantum physics”.
CNN reported having seen a proposal for the book, which the controversial far-right conspiracy theorist is reported to be working on with The Game author Neil Strauss. Running to 27 pages, the document makes a series of bold claims: about “the front lines of the war for your mind”, it will be “a classic that will be … around for generations” and if you read it, you “will never look at your life or your world the same way again”.
According to CNN, the proposal was sent to US publishers by Strauss’s agent at United Talent Agency. Once CNN published its initial story, however, a spokesperson for the agency said it did not represent the book, and that Strauss’s agent “made the initial outreach to publishers without having consulted the appropriate people internally”.
Jones, founder of the Infowars website, has pushed conspiracy theories including claiming that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax and that 9/11 was “an inside job”. Donald Trump has appeared on his radio show, telling Jones: “Your reputation is amazing.” Strauss is the author of the bestseller The Game, a book that explored the world of male pick-up artists and featured tips on seducing women that included negging – feigning a lack of interest in a woman to reduce her self-esteem.
Jones’s proposal is reported to say: “There is a war for your mind. A war to make you docile. A war to make you a sheep. A war to take away your initiative, your freedom, and your control over your own life.”
It adds: “Besides the months of promotion that I’m looking forward to doing, I’m writing this book for the long road. I am putting a lot of work into it, distilling my knowledge, philosophy, and mission into some 120,000 words. And it’s my hope that this book outlasts me.”
But CNN was told by industry insiders that publishers may not want to acquire the book because of Jones’s inflammatory reputation and the backlash a potential publisher could face. Simon & Schuster was heavily criticised by the literary community after it acquired the controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos’s book. It later dropped the title, and Yiannopoulos is currently attempting to sue for $10m.
Following the news about Jones’s proposal, the bestselling thriller author Linwood Barclay wrote on Twitter: “Every author I know must be thinking, ‘Please, please, please don’t let it be my publisher.’”
