How Right Wing books become Best Sellers

[FauxNewsBlues]

I was looking at Drudge Report (Yeah, I know), but I do like to see what the enemy is saying, and on top of the page is an ad, to get Bill O'Reilly's book free.

Curious, I clicked it, and it was NewsMax, offering O'Reilly's book for free to anybody who subscribed to a year of their print magazine.

There also is something called "The Conservative Book Club" Where ya get 3 books by O'Reilly, Coulter, Hannity, etc... for $1 each, and then you have to pay wholesale prices for a few more books.

I know there were bulk orders for Ann Thrax Coulter's book, and the NY Times actually is starting to call them on it. But, this leads me to a question. Who actually is doing the bulk buying?

People reflexively say Richard Mellon Scaife, just because it sounds like something he would do. But, is there any proof of his involvement? Is there any left leaning columnist, an Alterman, Conason, Marshall, etc who is looking into this? If not, why not?

If we figure out who was bulk buying Mann Coulter's Scandal, it would create a huge Scandal in and of itself.

[dobak]

1. don't get too worked up..

As much as I hate to admit it, Manthrax's book actually was selling very well. Not as well as Hillary's book or Al Franken's book.

Also, books purchased by book clubs are not reflected in the NYT Bestseller lists.

Here is the response I got from the NYT on this issue:

a brief answer for now -- I am on deadline just now but want to get back to you quickly. A dagger means that a book owes its ranking that week largely to bulk orders. We do not get reports from Book Of the month type clubs. We do however receive reports from stores who sell bulk orders to corporations, college classrooms, seminars, management retreats, etc. There are some books that are purchased in bulk expressly as give -aways. this can be from politicians or interest groups, for example, or self-help organizations. It basically is an attempt to share with readers what we know: that is, if they do not see folks on the bus reading the book, it could be because it is a dagger-type title. It means that bulk sales are the norm for a particular title. It does not detract from the book sales, however, it DOES often characterize those sales as predominantly special-interest generated and sustained.

We do not eliminate these titles, but we do try to explain such rankings, especially when they can keep a book afloat for many months. As to the number of sales considered bulk, we do not discuss exact sales for fear of escalating attempts to manipulate the lists.

[Democat]

2. It is a scam

They buy the books and give them away or burn them just to keep the books in the best seller list.

They also buy placement in all the major bookstores.

They don't care if they lose money because they are trying to trick people into supporting them.