Book Deals Tell All: Right-Wingers Will Buy Anything - Up To A Point!

Because Some Of Them DO Read! Honest!
(Well, that' what I heard, anyway)

Book advances and royalty deals tell a lot about what the American public is willing to shell out to be entertained:

Laura Bush got an advance of only $1.3 for her memoirs. George Bush barely got an advance (unknown). Bill Clinton ultimately raked in a whopping $30 million from "My Life" and Hillary Clinton took in at least $8 million for "Living History." Sarah Palin has signed for a book deal, but will not disclose the amount until March, 2010: she didn't want to "distract from the substance of the book."

May 4, 2009 12:04 PM EST |

Glenn Beck has reached an agreement with Simon & Schuster for a series of books _ fiction and nonfiction, for young and for old, in a variety of formats...As part of the deal, Beck will accept a smaller advance, but also will receive part of the profits, an arrangement Simon & Schuster has used previously with Stephen King.

Beck has three books planned for this year, including "Arguing With Idiots," a nonfiction hardcover book; an audiobook called "America's March to Socialism"; and an e-book/paperback channeling of Thomas Paine, "Glenn Beck's Common Sense."

NEW YORK — Glenn Beck loves the publishing game. The conservative commentator and best-selling author has reached an agreement with Simon & Schuster for a series of books _ fiction and nonficti...

NEW YORK — Glenn Beck loves the publishing game. The conservative commentator and best-selling author has reached an agreement with Simon & Schuster for a series of books _ fiction and nonficti...

Note: "Common Sense" is now #1 on the Amazon bestseller list. And here is a sample of what right-wingers will read for "fun":

Many people will hear the word Progressive and immediately think of liberals or Democrats – but they’re not synonymous. Progressivism has less to do with the parties and more to do with individuals who seek to redefine, reshape, and rebuild America into a country where individual liberties and personal property mean nothing if they conflict with the plans and goals of the State.

- From Glenn Beck's Common Sense

In other words, Progressives are Socialist. Beck and Hannity call Obama a Socialist, therefore, personal liberties mean nothing to President Barack Obama.

On the other hand, a few right-wingers will go just so far in support of right-wing authors: Joe The Plumber's book Joe the Plumber -- Fighting for the American Dream" was released by a group called PearlGate Publishing.

Huffington Post:

"I am not going to a conglomerate that way we actually can get the economy jump started. Like there is five publishing companies in Michigan. There's a couple down in Texas. They are small ones that can handle like 10 or 15,000 copies. I can go to a big one that could handle a million or two. But they don't need the help. They are already rich. So that's spreading the wealth to me," he said.

Translation: no publishing house offered him an advance, so he had to take a "print-on-demand" offer. Its Amazon ranking is 268,064 and his average customer rating is a meager 2.5 out of five stars.

I read some of the readers' reviews and this tongue-in-cheek review is quite a gem:...

And that's why Joe is still so immensely popular. He's angry, vicious, ignorant, and intellectually incurious. He's one of us, and like us, he didn't learn about public policy and international relations at a university or from books or journals; he learned everything he needed to know by tuning into Rush, Hannity, Savage, and Ingraham.

Then there's the ubiquitous (to today's publishing industry, at least) Ann Coulter(geist). She's grown filthy rich off her books. When she's spotlighted on talk shows, you just know that another one of her liberals-are-fecal-matter books is on the shelves. But wait! Her last book, Guilty! showed a drop in sales!!

March 13th, 2009 by John Grooms in Boomer with an Attitude

Coulter, bony heroine of the hard right and former actress (she played Seabiscuit in the movie of the same name), has been all over the media lately, even agreeing to joint appearances with Bill Maher. The reason? Her latest book, Guilty, has sold a mere 100,000 copies. Most authors would kill for 100,000 books sold, but Coulter is used to figures in the 300K-400K range. And she and her publisher are apparently freaking out.

But when you come to think about it, even right-wingers have to be, if not discerning, at least bored by what was liberal-bashing for the sake of, well, liberal bashing. Coulter's outlandish, insulting and totally egotistical statements (equating waterboarding with a childish prank that absolutely everyone with a normal childhood went through).

Advances, royalties, celebrities, pundits, right-wingers, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and...Joe the Plumber.

Could Mark Twain have survived today? I doubt it. Very, very much.

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. - MT