(no subject)

[ksmith]

So. I'm hearing that Sarah Palin will receive a $7 million advance for a book, I assume about the campaign and her life.

Yeah.

I am sure it would sell buckets.

I know.

That's a whole lotta midlist.

I know.

It's a business.

Comments

[mcurry.livejournal.com]

It's a business in which they most likely won't see her earning out that advance, which, for books like this, always seems like the real kick in the teeth to every writer whose new book doesn't get picked up despite their last one earning out. Not to mention those employees of the publisher whose jobs have been (or will be) eliminated to cut costs.

Bleah.

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

*bangs head on desk*

At least Joe the Plumber's book (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2008/11/the-joe-the-plu.html) wasn't picked up by any publisher of note.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I don't know why such large advances are paid when, afaik, they do not earn out. I know it's publicity, but it's not like it draws readers to other books by that publisher.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I heard this on Countdown. I honestly don't know if that's what Palin's agent--I assume she has an agent--is floating, or if there's a proposal floating around, or neither, or both, or what.

[technomage.livejournal.com]

Not being too much of a nag... but aren't you a post-y author tonight, or what!

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

I would guess that's just what's being floated.

I'm sure there's a giant market. God knows you can't walk into a bookstore without seeing a pile of books from a wingnut conservative pundit. Not to mention, her book will get into all of the Christian bookstores.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Postorrhea.

[coppervale.livejournal.com]

I keep telling people they need to switch out their current author photos for one where they're wearing a bikini, holding a rifle, and standing over a moose - but does anyone listen? Nooo...

;)

[lagilman]

SO far it';s all Just Rumor. I'm sure someone will pay too damn much, just for the train-wreck-ness of it all, but it's just as likely to be from one of the larger Christian publishers, not a commercial NYC publisher, and for not-really-7-mil.

[coppervale.livejournal.com]

And she'll be profiled in the news magazines. Which ones? Uh, y'know... ALL of 'em.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Yep. She'll sell like gangbusters among the Xians.

Someone else will write it for her, I'm sure. I hope they get a nice fee.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

A dollar would be too much for a book by Palin.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

We can hope she doesn't get a gig on Oprah.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

I assure you, wearing a bikini would do nothing for my sales...not at my age and size.

Lacking moose in my home state, I wonder if standing over a jackrabbit with a sword would work....or standing over a coyote with a crossbow???

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I can see her appearing on The View, though. That could get interesting--Palin and Elizabeth Hasselbeck on one side and Whoopie Goldberg and Baba Wawa on the other.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I'd go for standing over Bananaface with a steely look in your eye.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Ya cause you know, you couldn't for example pay me *$7 million to shore up for her the book that she writes from you know her house. You betcha.


*Okay, yes I would.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

I *loathe* Hasselbeck. She is so blinkin' SMUG. Classic entitled yuppie. I quit watching The View, and she's one of the reasons.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the show itself, just some of the clips that make in onto You Tube. The View political battles made it onto You Tube. Yes, Hasselbeck is an idiot, and a compelling reason for me to avoid that show.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

(snort) Bananaface is a lot taller than I am, and knows it.

The most recent steely gaze event concerned Mac-the-drama-queen, who decided I wasn't going to put his halter on for the farrier last week. "I'll pin my ears! Look at me: pinned ears! I'll threaten to bite! Look at my pinned ears, my swishing tail, my snapping teeth!" *THUD*

"NO! Can't make me! Pinned ears!!! Bared teeth!!" *THUD*

"You--you HIT me! I'm really-really mad now!" *THUD* followed by deflation as of pricked balloon.

"Well, good grief..I never SAID you couldn't put the halter on...see, my ears are forward, my head is lowered, my nose is going RIGHT IN..."

The *THUD* is of very minor magnitude--if you hit a table that hard, the glasses wouldn't jiggle. But it's dramatic, and it's one way that horses communicate "I'm alpha: behave." Mac-the-drama-queen understands dramatic. I also give him "mare-face" but that would look horrible in a photograph. (I find it weird that horses understand people doing "mare-face" and also "finger-ears" but they do.)

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Back before they got Hasselbeck, it was actually interesting and fun sometimes.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I understand 'finger-ears', but what's 'mare-face'? Is lip-curling involved?

[jemck.livejournal.com]

Well now, the consensus on the panel*, at the UK Society of Authors AGM last month, was that such non-books may well be on their way out. Because the margins are so poor.

There's nothing like an economic downturn/recession/whatever, to concentrate a business's mind on the old adage, "turnover is vanity, profit is sanity".

Paying £5Million to some soccerball player's girlfriend for her style tips is still a bad deal, even if the book sells by the shedload, if you're only making a penny per copy.

Also, as you rightly point out, such purchases are almost all made by people who don't actually buy any other kind of books - and who will cut their bookspending first when money is tight.

Also, these deals - here in the UK at least - are often predicated on expectation of a newspaper serialisation. Several publishers got badly burned last Xmas when their headline celebiogs didn't get such a deal. On account of being about boring non-entities, it would appear. The evidence on the shelves so far this autumn would suggest they've been more cautious this time around - and looked for books by/about more interesting people.

We can but hope.

*The panel was a Head Honcho from Bloomsbury, Head Honcho from the UK's biggest book distributor and Senior Chap with High Powered Clients from one of the premier literary agencies.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

We can hope. But Palin is extremely popular with some sections of the US population right now, so someone may strike while the guv is still hot. But as suricattus said, it could be one of the larger Xtian publishers. Bulk orders by churches and other like-minded organizations will boost the numbers, and Palin will add "bestselling author" to her resume.

I don't know if you have the opportunities for such bulk sales in the UK, but they've been credited, at least in part, with making books like the Left Behind series and some conservative screeds bestsellers. I don't know if there's any similar mechanism on the progressive side of the fence. Maybe we need to contact Unitarian Jihad.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Mare-face is UGLY.

Full-face glare, eyes narrowed, nose wrinkled up, all available teeth bared with lips fully retracted, finger-ears in the "pinned ears" position, then mime biting.

For most geldings, this results in "Omigod, the alpha mare's gonna kill me!" reactions. Real alpha mares, like Kuincy of old, have any gelding in their area so well trained that just dipping the ear on his side and slightly tilting the head his direction will move him twenty feet. Humans can't pull total mare-face, but we can do it enough to get a reaction. K- occasionally did mare-face with the Yellow Peril, which is how I learned it. I saw her do it with other horses being difficult as well.

I suspect--though I don't know for sure--that it is not as effective on mares themselves. Never needed it with Kuincey--like many true alphas, she accepted the human owner as alpha and didn't cause difficulties. But it works on both Bananaface and Mac.

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't read it even if it were free.


Cynthia

[jemck.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I suspect the Xtian publisher scenario is the most likely.

No, we have nothing like that over here. No religious/political/whatever minority is large enough of itself to make a commercially significant market. Everyone I know in the book trade regards the Left Behind phenomenon with utter bemusement.