Right-wing publishers worry about future

[Kadie]

Right-wing publishers worry about future
By Associated Press
Sunday, June 3, 2007 - Updated: 01:42 PM EST

snip...
The conservative works on display at BookExpo America, which ended Sunday, could be seen as a tribute to the diversity of right-wing publishing and the movement in general. But, publishers say, they’re really a sign of an industry, and of a political movement, wondering what to do next.

"The conservative market is not unified, there are many fractures," says Marji Ross, president and publisher of Regnery Publishing, which for 60 years has been releasing conservative works, including Ingraham’s upcoming "Power to the People."

"It’s a reflection of the culture, and a reflection of the Republican party, which is being torn in different directions," added Steve Ross (no relation to Marji Ross), head of the Crown Publishing Group, which includes the conservative imprint, Crown Forum, where authors include Ann Coulter.

Brand name writers like Coulter, who has a book out this fall, continue to top best seller lists. But publishers say they are struggling to find books with broad themes to engage and energize right-wing readers like the anti-Clinton books of the 1990s or the 2005 best seller, Newt Gingrich’s "Winning the Future."

"The submissions are more narrowly focused, on a single issue," said Marji Ross, who added that sales in 2006 were the softest since the start of the Bush administration.

snip...
Meanwhile, publishers say they rarely see proposals for books that praise Bush. His presidency is perceived as essentially over, and increasingly unpopular, even among those who have supported him.


more...
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/bookNews/view.bg?articleid=1004630

[mitchum]

1. Why are they pussyfooting around this?

They're really concerned because so much of their right wing market is illiterate

[bliss_eternal]

2. LMAO!

:rofl:

[Kadie]

4. .

:spray:

That sounds like a DUzy!

:rofl:

[rurallib]

11. know we idn't

[Raksha]

14. You beat me to it!

I'm sure liberal-themed books outsell conservative ones consistently, simply because more liberals actually buy and READ books! What they are really saying is that their market is even more of a flop than it was before.

[tanyev]

3. Bet they're all secretly praying that Hillary is the next president.

Business would boom again!

[Deja Q]

5. For whose economy?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1034285&mesg_id=1034285

Ultimately? India's, it seems...

[tanyev]

6. Their right wing publishing business would boom.

Immensely.

[Kagemusha]

7. Cry me an ocean!

What a positive, uplifting development for America.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

8. "There just isn't a market out there...

For easily debunked screeds full of lies and misinformation."

Tomorrow on Quotes We'd Really Like To See...

:D

[AlCzervik]

9. i guess Truthiness has lost it's appeal in the real world.

[rug]

10. God Bless Hugo.

[ChicagoRonin]

12. According to a friend in the publishing industry

What's killing some of these guys is their practice of massive bulk-buys by buddies at PNAC and other conservative groups to artificially boost sales numbers (those best-seller records are the product of such tactics). It's costly and doesn't really amount to genuine dividends for the publishers in the long-run. It's gotten harder with the gradual souring of the W's popularity. Plus, the conservative base that allegedly is the market for stuff by guys like Regnery by and large doesn't actually read the stuff. It's not that they're necessarily illiterate, it's just that all the books do is confirm what they wish to believe in anyway; why bother reading it. College Republicans just like the fact they get a hold of a copy of Ann Coulter's book and maybe get it signed at some Republican event by Ms. Personality; ultimately to aid in the fulfillment of various X-rated Neocon wet-dreams.

[blogslut]

13. I can totally accept that

It's one thing for a bookstore to order a case or two but when private, politically-based groups purchase these books by the pallet, the sales numbers have been artificially inflated. The myth lives on.

[ComerPerro]

15. nice. They are trying to say that conservative books aren't selling because conservatives

are a diverse group, with widly varying opinions and interests in different topics. Blah blah bullshit.

Conservatives want books that blame liberals and praise conservatism, that make excuses for the failure of conservatism by either calling conservative leaders "too liberal", saying that conservatives don't fight enough and give in to liberals too easily, or flat out ignoring facts and recent history and blamming everything on the left in a catch-all attack.