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Thursday, June 12, 2003
What the right hand is doing
Over at the Corner, which is kind of like the Algonquin Round Table for the socially stunted, it's Hillary-palooza time.
You've got pudgy momma's boy, Jonah Goldberg pointing out:
I'm really trying to avoid getting too mired in the Hillary book drek, but I have to say I think Simon and Schuster is lying. I've talked to a couple people in publishing and I know a little about the trade myself and too much sounds fishy. For example:
The "leak" to the Associated Press was bogus and almost certainly came from Simon and Schuster. It helped book sales, generated buzz and was timed perfectly. The idea that they were angry didn't pass the laugh test.
Simon and Schuster claims they printed 1 million copies. People I've talked to say this is probably a lie.
Simon and Schuster claimed yesterday that they sold 20 percent or 200,000 copies of the book on its first day. Not only do I think this is impossible, given purely anecdotal information, I'm confident it is impossible that Simon and Schuster could actually know if they sold that many books. Such numbers are notoriously difficult to collect months after the fact. The idea that S&S got same-day data strikes me as bizarre. How come we've never gotten same day info like this before? Will we ever get it again? I don't think so.
If they really printed 1 million copies, why does S&S need to order another 300,000 copies? Why is it saying that they're making another reprint order next week on top of that? Surely, they don't think the 800,000 books remaining on the shelves constitutes a low supply?
I think this is all a very well-orchestrated campaign to create the impression of a much greater groundswell than actually exists. Hillary's motive for this is obvious. She needs to appear extremely popular. Simon and Schuster had to do it this way because -- other than the three or four leaked (dishonest) paragraphs about her finding out about Monica from Bill -- there is actually zero interesting, controversial or salacious material in the book. If you can't sell the book because of the content, you've got to sell the event. I think it's a con and I would love to see one of the breathless reporters covering Hillary actually do some truth-squad work on this.
As a "journalist" he could always pick up the phone and call Simon & Schuster to find out why they are going to print again...but then he's paid to have opinions not to dig up facts. Hence the "probably" and the "purely anecdotal information". Jonah then points us in the direction of this blogger (Warning: slow loading page. How slow? Imagine George W. Bush on Jeopardy. That slow.) who starts out:
I predicted this morning that Hillary Clinton's book, Living History, set for June 9 release, will wind up in the remainder bins at bookstores by the end of June.
...and then goes on to share the wisdom he gleaned from a friend about Publishing 101. Of course, only Jonah, timely Jonah, would link us to a post about Living History from....4/29. The One Handed blogger later posts:
What do Saddam and Hillary have in common?
Maybe nothing. Maybe the way that they write books
which links to this:
Comes now "Living History," another book "by" Hillary Clinton. Set aside whether this much-hyped marketing vehicle contains so much as a single sentence that rises above the level of statements of the obvious regarding events that have already been reported in excruciating detail. Once again, Clinton is presented as the author of what is actually a ghosted book. The world learned that Barbara Feinman Todd wrote "It Takes a Village," because the publisher inadvertently issued a press release announcing the true author; Hillary threw an ego fit and demanded that all reference to Todd's existence be removed from the book and its press materials, which was presented to the world as if it were the product solely of Clinton's late-night labors. This time around, the pages of "Living History" thank three people -- the much-admired former White House speech writer Alison Muscatine, veteran ghost Maryanne Vollers and researcher Ruby Shamir -- who are assumed to be the actual authors. But the cover and the frontispiece still boldly state, "by Hillary Rodham Clinton." . . .
Kind of like this boldly states: George W. Bush.
Meanwhile the Corner provides us with this picture of people lined up to not buy a copy of Living History. The Corner also goes downstairs to consort with these people who
"stood in the blistering sun to meet the pastel-suited former First Lady for ten seconds".
You know. To meet the woman who "needs to appear extremely popular", in the world according to Jonah.
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