Sarah Palin's book tour is flopping just as we knew that it would.

Covering @SarahPalinUSA book signing in #Orlando #flapol #oponow #sayfie pic.twitter.com/nnMbp8gkUs

— Frank Torres (@franktorresnet) November 20, 2015

Courtesy of the Orlando Political Observer:  

Former Vice-Presidential nominee and Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin was in Orlando on Friday night, the latest stop in her book signing tour to promote her latest work “Sweet Freedom”. 

The stop was not heavily promoted and drew about 100 supporters. Palin did not speak beforehand and did not hold any media availability. She first rose to national popularity as John McCain’s running-mate in 2008, and became a fixture in popular culture. She’s written two previous best sellers and remains a favorite among conservatives nationwide.

Was not heavily promoted?

Seems like they tried:

Special Instructions 

Wristbands (750 limit) will be distributed at 9:00AM on a first come, first served basis on the day of the event and will be required for entry into the signing line. An additional 250 wristbands will be distributed after, for backup if time allows. 

Well it looks like they certainly expected a large turnout.

Gee if only they would have visited IM we could have told them that Sarah Palin's days of fake selling large volumes of books with the help of conservative organization bulk sales are over.

Just like she is.

In the "I told you so" category, guess who gushed over Adele's joke about jump starting her singing career.

Courtesy of People:  

After the singer credited her success in the U.S. to the former Alaska governor during an upcoming BBC One special, Palin returned the favor by sending Adele a signed copy of her new book, Sweet Freedom. 

But it's what's on the inside that counts. On the first page of her book, Palin wrote Adele a gushing thank-you note that's packed with song title puns. It reads: 

 "Adele, You look so great! So beautiful! So … Rumor Has It you recently threw me some credit for your amazing success – very kind coming from Someone Like You! Congrats on motherhood. Keep Setting Fire to the Rain. 

Love, your fan … Sarah Palin" 

And by way of thanking the mega star she sends her one of her crappy books?

That will teach Adele to mention her name, even jokingly, during an interview.

The publisher of Sarah Palin's newest book was once sued by five of its authors because they "structured their business essentially as a scam."

"I got another book deal."

Okay so I was reading through this Salon piece on Ted Cruz's new book, explaining how the New York Times essentially outed publishing houses for using bulk sales to drive up the numbers in order to get on best seller lists. When I came across this:  

At some point the New York Times figured this out and began to list such alleged best-sellers with a “dagger” next to them denoting bulk sales, which sort of takes the fun, if not the profit out of it. And it wasn’t long ago that some authors got wind of another layer of the scam at their own expense. They sued their publisher, the right-wing Regnery Publishing for selling what would otherwise be boring, remainder bin books to various affiliated organizations at a steeply reduced price and even for free as promotional items. The authors did not receive royalties for such sales and they weren’t happy about it, one of them even complaining, “they’ve structured their business essentially as a scam and are defrauding their writers.” Imagine that. (Here is a link to that 2007 New York Times article.)

The name of the publisher, Regnery Publishing, seemed awfully familiar to me. Now where had I heard that name before?

And then it hit me:

Sarah Palin has a new book coming out, with a new publisher. 

Regnery Publishing, a conservative press based in Washington, D.C., announced Tuesday that it was planning a November release for Palin's Sweet Freedom: A Devotional.

Aha!

So it appears that Palin's newest publishing house is really just a scam operation that rips off its authors in order to drive up its own profits.  Interesting, no?

Of course Palin is not known for being exactly honest concerning book sales herself, since in the past she has used SarahPAC to purchase bulk orders of her own books in order to artificially drive up the numbers and increase her own profit margin as well.

So the question now remaining is, who will rip off whom?

Will Regnery rip Palin off, and use her waning celebrity to sell bulk orders of her books to conservative markets as giveaways, thereby depriving her of royalties?

Or will Palin herself buy up bulk orders using SarahPAC money, and then give them away to the six people who still want to read a book by her ghostwriter and pocket the money herself?

Well considering the most recent quarterly filings from SarahAPC that last scenario seems increasingly less likely.

However this IS Sarah Palin, who, I think we can all agree, was born to grift. So when it comes to being devious and ripping off her own fans, I would not count her out quite yet.

Conservatives angry that The New York Times will not put Ted Cruz's book on the bestseller's list just because he cheated to drive up book sales. Clearly a liberal conspiracy.

Courtesy of TPM:

The New York Times decided this week not to place Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) book on its bestseller list, leaving some conservatives convinced that the paper unfairly targeted the presidential candidate. 

The Times told HarperCollins that Cruz's book would not make the list, despite the fact that "A Time For Truth" sold more copies than 18 of the 20 books that appeared on the bestseller list this week, Politico reported. According to Nielsen Bookscan, Cruz sold 11,854 copies of his book in its first week. 

"We have uniform standards that we apply to our best seller list, which includes an analysis of book sales that goes beyond simply the number of books sold," Times Spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told HarperCollins when the publisher asked why "A Time For Truth" had been left off the list.

In response to this news conservatives were livid:  

Given that Cruz's book sold so many copies and that the Times has previously included books written by Republican politicians and candidates on its bestseller list, conservatives on Thursday night were outraged. 

A RedState headline described the book's exclusion as "The New York Times’ War on Ted Cruz." Breitbart News wrote that Cruz was "snubbed" by the Times. 

Twitchy, a conservative site that tracks social media, compiled a list of conservatives concerned that the Times was biased against Republicans or Cruz.

However Politico dug into this and reported on what went into the decision making:

(New York Time spokesperson Eileen) 

Murphy emailed late Thursday night to further clarify the reasoning behind the Times decision. 

"In the case of this book, the overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases," she wrote.

Oh so what, having conservative businesses buy up boxes and boxes of your book, to be given away for free later, in order to falsely give the impression that it is a bestseller is not okay anymore?

Well  think we know who to blame don't we?

Gee this certainly does not bode well for Sarah Palin's upcoming new book.

Bulk buying your way to the best seller's list.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:

In January 2012, former megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll’s book Real Marriage went to the top spot on the Hardcover Advice section of The New York Times best-seller list. In March 2014, it was disclosed by evangelical magazine, World, that Driscoll’s publishing success was aided by a consulting firm called ResultSource, which purchased books on behalf of Driscoll in a coordinated effort to spike sales and give the impression that the book was popular with thousands of book buyers. Driscoll recently resigned from his church and one factor associated with his departure is the decision to buy his way onto the best-seller list. 

Driscoll later admitted that the scheme was wrong and even asked that the designation “New York Times best-selling author” be removed from his bio and book covers. However, Driscoll is not alone among evangelicals wanting to improve their brand and increase sales. 

This Daily Beast article is mainly concerned with how Christian authors get their books onto the best seller list, however I am sure that most of you were quick to realize that this is probably how a LOT of undeserving authors get there as well. 

In fact the author links to a 2013 Wall Street article which makes that very point: 

It isn't uncommon for a business book to land on best-seller lists only to quickly drop off. But even a brief appearance adds permanent luster to an author's reputation, greasing the skids for speaking and consulting engagements. 

But the short moment of glory doesn't always occur by luck alone. In the cases mentioned above, the authors hired a marketing firm that purchased books ahead of publication date, creating a spike in sales that landed titles on the lists. The marketing firm, San Diego-based ResultSource, charges thousands of dollars for its services in addition to the cost of the books, according to authors interviewed. 

As ResultSource's website points out, hitting best-seller lists can mean fame, and potentially lucrative consulting assignments. 

"Publishing a book builds credibility, but having a Bestseller initiates incredible growth—exponentially increasing the demand for your thought leadership, skyrocketing your speaking itinerary and value," ResultSource says. 

ResultSource's principal, Kevin Small, declined requests for an interview. On its website, the company outlines its ambitions: "'We create campaigns that reach a specific goal, like: "On the bestsellers list," or "100,000 copies sold.'"

Even though those who compile data for bestseller lists are vigilant about bulk book sales, and do not count them in their calculations, companies like ResultSource have found ways around their scrutiny.

This of course is the way that conservative authors like Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly obviously contiue receiving credit for writing bestsellers, even though their approach to their topic (Obama is bad!) is ham fisted and their built in audience is for the most part functionally illiterate.

And it also explains the success of this future bargain bin mainstay.

I had to read this literary shit stain for the blog, and I do believe that I have written far more eloquently constructed sentences while drunkenly banging my face onto the keyboard whilst attempting to retrieve a dropped cashew nut with my lips.

Hey do you remember back when an author actually had to write a good book to make it on the bestseller's list? When a politician actually had to garner votes from the majority of the people in order to get elected? And when a person's fifteen minutes of fame actually had to last only that fifteen minutes?

Boy those were the day weren't they?