Conspiracy to keep "Unfit" out of hands of dittoheads?

[BJ]

A friend of mine, who works for Barnes and Noble, tells me that Regnery Publishing cut B&N's initial order for Unfit For Command in half, limiting the number of books the national bookseller can sell.

He also says that dittoheads are coming in complaining that Rush and Sean say that Barnes and Noble's part of a conspiracy by bookstores to keep Unfit off the shelfs because it is the "truth."

He says it's them most ridiculous rumor he's ever heard since he's worked at B and N. But, he continues, a couple of assistant floor managers,who believe everything Pigboy and Sean utter is Gospel, are the poor saps who have to deal with their fellow angry dittoheads.

[bryant69]

1. This is standard publishing ploy

Limit the initial run to build up a fever pitch. It comes right after summoning the spirit of Beelzebu, and right before shooting man "just to watch him die."

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[carpediem]

2. personally, I think they(regnery) decreased the order so they

could say it sold out without mentioning how few copies have actually been sold. Make it appear that the book is in high demand.

[BJ]

12. That's what I said to my friend.

But he said the beancounters sent out an in-store letter saying that B&N had ordered more than what Regnery shipped.

[Democat]

3. An AP article claimed there are 650,000 copies of the book in print

Is that true?

If so, that's very bad news.

[delete_bush]

4. maybe Halliburton will purchase the

hundreds of thousands of copies that will not sell and convert them to toilet paper for the troops.

[klook]

8. Just like Hannity's book

became a best seller--because Republicans bought multiple copies. L. Ron Hubbard's novel "Battlefield Earth" won a Hugo Award from science fiction fans because thousands of Scientology members voted for it, not because it's any good.

[RamboLiberal]

15. Sludge was reporting yesterday around 68,000 scanned

And I think Regenery has torpedoed themselves. I'm betting inquiries for this piece of trash decline now that these liars have been debunked. Only the koolaid drinkers will be reading it.

[Commendatori]

5. I live in D.C, and I can tell you that it's available at the following

stores:

Barnes & Noble, Metro Center

Borders, Farragut North

Borders, Pentagon City

Borders, Friendship Heights

B. Dalton, Union Station

B. Dalton, Crystal Gateway Marriott

Walden Books, Dulles IAP

Books-a-Million, Dupont Circle

In fact, the only store I haven't seen it in is the B. Dalton closest to the Crystal CITY Marriott, and that one has a clearance sale going on because it's closing in two weeks (in other words, no new inventory is being received).

[madinmaryland]

6. I heard they have only sold 65,000 copies.

Sorry, I don't have the link for that. Think it was CNN.

[sniffa]

7. newsmax crowed, "unfit hits #1 on NYTimes best seLLer List

[madinmaryland]

9. newsmax? 'nuf said

[Democat]

10. AP says 650,000

In the article where AP tells us what a great man John O'Neill is, they claim their are 650,000 copies of the book in print.

[girl gone mad]

11. Show him this article:

by Jim Milliot and Kevin Howell, PW Daily for Booksellers -- 8/24/2004

As the battle between John Kerry and the self-proclaimed "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," escalates, booksellers are getting caught in the crossfire. The past few days have brought curious--and apparently unrelated--incidents concerning the Kerry-bashing bestseller, Unfit for Command., co-written by one of the "Swift Boat" group's leaders, John O'Neill.

Several store managers at Barnes & Noble and Borders spent the weekend fending off complaints from customers that the two chains were refusing to sell the book, which attempts to debunk Kerry's claim's about his war record. Meanwhile, independent and chain booksellers say they've been burned by bulk orders for Unfit and another liberal-blasting title, Michael Moore is a Big Fat Idiot (Regan Books), made under a bogus name....

As for those bogus orders, Sheila Burns, owner of Bloomsbury Books, Ashland, Ore. Said she has been getting daily phone calls for two weeks from people ordering multiple copies of Unfit and Michael Moore is a Big Fat Idiot. Unfortunately, the people ordering these books have been leaving fake names and disconnected phone numbers. After being stuck with several orders of a dozen copies of the Regan title, the store has begun calling back phone numbers and asking for a credit card for multiple-copy orders of both books.

"We're a little liberal town surrounded by a big conservative state," said Burns. "We have 12,000 residents and I think 58 of them voted for Bush in the last election. I don't feel like these are my customers calling me."

She calls the phone called "creepy and irritating," adding, "It's both men and women calling. And they sound very orchestrated, like people are being told what to say. They want to know how many books I have on order and whether I will have stacks in the store. When I said that Unfit was on backorder, they wanted to know our distributor. That's pretty sophisticated for a layperson to ask about. I deeply resent being told what to carry. I'm not supported by tax money, this is my store."...

Matthew Stearns, special orders coordinator at Elliot Bay Book Co. in Seattle, Wash., said, "We haven't gotten any bunk orders for Unfit for Command, but we were targeted by someone who ordered 25 copies of Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Idiot. The customer said his name was Don Sheldon and he placed his order on August 14, but we later discovered that the phone number he left was for another local bookstore." After the 25 copies arrived in the store, Elliott Bay Book Co. started receiving phone calls from other local bookstores looking for Don Sheldon to tell him his 25 or 30 copies had arrived--the bogus buyer was apparently giving out the store's number.

"He scammed a lot of us," Stearns said. "I sat for an hour with a list of bookstores in the area and warned them about the scam. I even called our local distributor, Partners West, to warn them to monitor the levels of the orders of this book."

"Don Sheldon" also placed a call to a Seattle Barnes & Noble, confirmed Lloyd Adalist, community relations manager for the store. Adalist said he's the store has also fielded numerous calls about the availability of Unfit. "A lot of people have been reluctant to leave their name, which is unlike any other book we've ever tried to take names for. I've been in the book business for 25 year and I find it very curious that people are unwilling to leave their name for this book."


Discussion here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=69874

and thanks to ConservativeDemocrat for finding and posting it. It comes from a daily Publisher's Weekly newsletter (e-mail) to booksellers.

[BJ]

13. This is exactly what my friend told me.

Several store managers at Barnes & Noble and Borders spent the weekend fending off complaints from customers that the two chains were refusing to sell the book, which attempts to debunk Kerry's claim's about his war record.

[girl gone mad]

14. Publisher's Weekly has a very good reputation..

in the business. If they say there's suspicious activity going on, I believe them.

I'm going to read up on a few bookseller's message boards later tonight and I'll see if they have any similar reports. I don't sell current releases, so I wouldn't have any first hand knowledge.

[blondeatlast]

16. Here's the scoop from a MAJOR wholesaler, who shall remain nameless

for MY protection. Trust me, they are the real deal, though.

Demand during last 30 days: 174,000
Quantity on order with publisher: 7200

What this tells us in the biz: anticipated demand has exceeded actual demand. The book is likely headed for the remaindered shelves unless they scale back printing. Regnery has gotten very creative in explaining the ways they keep it from looking bad for them.

My prediction is that it will have very heavy demand the first week or two, then sink like a rock. This is not uncommon for most political oriented books.

Also keep in mind that retailers are going to be stuck with lack of interest on election-oriented titles once November 2 rolls around, so they may scale back demand on ANY politically-themed book.

[blondeatlast]

17. BTW: Conspiracy, yes, BUT...

the conspiracy is courtesy of our friends at Regnery. They simply don't care to look like they overanticipated demand. But they surely did, even if it's a bestseller this week.

[Willy Mugobeer]

18. We can help, can't we?

Next time I'm in a chain bookstore, I might just find myself wandering from the nonfiction to the fiction section.

And a few copies of the Swift Liars' book might just wander over with me and leap onto the fiction shelf where they really belong.

Snerk.

[Beaverhausen]

19. A B&N worker told me a woman ran up to the counter

and complained that "There aren't enough republican books here." He thought it was funny. He told me because he saw my Kerry pin on my purse.

I had just passed a table with all the usual suspects from the right and the left so it seemed they had enough for both sides.

Have you seen all the anti-Hillary books out there? Holy shit!