Inadvertently self-referential titles from Goldberg, Coulter, et al

[carolinayellowdog]

Hey,

I'm looking at a story in the June 30 Publisher's Weekly on convervative publishing, and the projection implicit in the titles is quite consistent:
1. Bernard Goldberg follows up Bias with Arrogance
2. Ann Coulter succeeds Slander with Treason
3. Tucker Carlson: Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites
4. Mona Charen: Useful Idiots
5. Bob Kohn: Journalistic Fraud

which reminds me of Barbara Olson's karmically prophetic Hell to Pay.

CYD

[slappypan]

1. Does anyone actually read all these tedious tomes?

Seems like the same book, over and over, just with a new dustjacket every other week.

[carolinayellowdog]

3. That's no barrier with these readers

nor for those who devour some of the more popular fiction authors. All they want is to be told the same things over and over. Working in a public library I do see at least as large a readership for these titles as for the liberal books I admire by authors like Alterman, Conason, or Ivins.

[tom_paine]

2. My, how Totalitarian Bootlickers and Fellators love to project!

They project their sickened souls onto us, hoping it will make them feel better.

Of course, nothing like cheques from the Bushevik Pay Corps with a lot of zeros helps with that.

Never have so many been paid so much to do so little. Never have so many been so graciously rewarded for snuffing out the Light of Liberty.

(well, not since 1935 Germany, anyway)

[Paragon]

4. I do get a kick out of...

...seeing Coulter's face plastered on something that says "Slander" and "Treason" - I can't help but think anyone who sees those dust jackets makes at least a subconscious connection.

I missed the Barbara Olson association, until now. Ouch.

[blondeatlast]

5. Haven't gotten to read that story yet; question . . .

Does it mention anything about the market for the freepers?

The main reason these books exist at all is, surprise, surprise:
WAL-MART!

Here is the way it works:
Wal-Mart decides to start selling hardcovers at enormous discounts--discounts even the chain bookstores can't reach. They have a very limited array of titles as well.

People who normally would not buy hardcovers begin to buy them. Wal-Mart knows it's customer demographic; lower, working, middle class; the kind that listen to Rush, think Ann Coulter is a genius, people that can't understand Robert Novak any more than they could Noam Chomsky.

(It is important to note that Wal-Mart buys directly from publishers, they don't go through B&T, Ingram, Koens, etc.)

All of a sudden, small, specialized presses (Regnery, Crown, Spence) are getting huge demand for their titles--not from bookstores, but from Wal-Mart, Best Buy, CostCo.

The presses grow, producing more titles with higher print runs. These titles become best-sellers, largely due to huge pre-pub orders from big box stores (NOT from distributors, they don't see high pre-pub demand for these!) and the ability of big boxes to discount them heavily. The major presses notice this and purchase the smaller presses as their imprints. Then, the cycle repeats.