Reddit mentions of How To Start Your Own Country

In terms of preexisting islands, there are plenty of places which wouldn't mind selling the land to you (in the same way you could buy a small island in, say, the Great Lakes)...but giving up sovereignty would be another matter entirely. And in the history of "micronations", even if you were able to manage that, you very likely wouldn't be afforded the same protections other nations have if and when the former owners decide for whatever reason to renege on the deal and take the land back by force. In terms of man-made islands, the UN passed a resolution a few decades ago to the effect that any landmass, natural or man-made, which has not already claimed by a recognized sovereign nation, and is in international waters, would automatically default to the jurisdiction of the nearest sovereign country. Since the concept I linked to above wouldn't technically be a LANDmass, the people behind it reasoned they'd be exempt from said resolution. Here's a couple of related books, if you're interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Micronations-General-Reference-John-Ryan/dp/1741047307/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254563140&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/How-Start-Your-Own-Country/dp/1581605242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254563185&sr=1-1

Don't forget the book: http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1581605242

Ive gotta get out of here