Bush Memoir Speeds Past 2 Million Sales Level

[newtothegame]

Source: Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Crown Publishing Group on Wednesday said the memoir of former president George W. Bush, "Decision Points," has sold more than 2 million hardcover and e-book copies since its release in early November.

By contrast, former president Bill Clinton's memoir, "My Life," has logged sales of 2.2 million copies since it was first published in 2004.

A spokesman for Crown called the performance remarkable, saying he could not immediately think of any other hardcover nonfiction books in 2010 that had sold over 1 million copies.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=12463038

---

Disappointing that he gets these #'s, especially with a down economy.

[pettypace]

1. Not a fair comparison

considering all the mess that transpired in 2001-2009 versus the relative tranquility we had from 1993-2001.

If anyone on here has read it, could you divulge your opinion por favor?

[Xipe Totec]

2. You forgot the quotes around the word 'sales'

I seriously doubt that people are rushing to buy this pile O' crap.

More likely it is bulk purchases by institutions, just like the tricks Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin use.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/10/15/report-romney-boosted-book-sales-by-asking-institutions-to-buy-copies-in-lieu-of-speech-fees

[WorseBeforeBetter]

8. That's exactly it -- institutional purchases.

And at least one from David Letterman who planned on using it as a doorstop.

[The Wizard]

32. 90 % will either be doorstops

on added to Richard Melon Scaife's mulch pile. Also works as a great kitty litter when shredded.

[UTUSN]

51. Doorstops!1 Yip, all those mansions have a lot of doors in them!1 n/t

[Canuckistanian]

12. Right

All the RW thinktanks probably have orders for the book that they will in turn give away as premiums for subscribing to their "newsletters".

Doesn't the NYT list these bulk sales with a 'dagger' symbol?

[TeaBagsAreForCups]

40. Unfortunately, No Dagger, except...

... for the dagger that this vile, ignorant, and fully evil piece of shit, and his cabal, put through the heart, soul, and future of our country.

http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-01-02/hardcover-nonfiction/list.html

Like others on this thread, my mind explodes and the sales numbers strain credulity - vis-a-vis the overall disdain and disapproval with which this scum is held by the public.

[molly77]

35. Xipe Totec

Wish we could find out who buys books like these. Nobody likes g bush anymore. So who would want to read his book, knowing that he is unable to tell the truth.

[alp227]

46. The Hotair.com blog links to Politico.com actually

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1010/How_Romney_made_a_bestseller.html?showall

If you don't wanna click through a right-wing blog.

Also in 2007 some authors who wrote books for Regnery Publishing sued the publisher (found this article on Wikipedia's article about Regnery Publishing).

[SharonAnn]

63. Too funny! Regnery Publishing scammed their conservative authors!

I love it.

There is justice, after all.

And these authors were surprised to find that Regnery publishing was "self-dealing" and was depriving the authors of royalties. They're more stupid than I thought.

[Newest Reality]

3. How many of them did Dubya buy, himself? - NT

[theophilus]

4. At least a brazillian. n/t

[Xipe Totec]

30. Good one!

:rofl:

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Sigh. Speaking as a real writer ...

I'll try not to say anything, or even to think about this.

AAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEE!!!

Thank you. I feel slightly better now.

[Stardust]

6. That makes me very sad. nt

[DCKit]

7. Awfully expensive toilet paper...

probably cause an infection or, at least, a really bad rash.

[3waygeek]

68. Can't imagine it working very well as TP...

since the pages are already full of shit.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

9. Read "Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing is Turning America...

into a One-Party State." It will shed some light on those 2M+ sales.

[JI7]

10. don't conservative groups buy them in bulk and give them away

for donations or prayer or some other things ?

[AsahinaKimi]

11. Come on...

Do Freepers, Teabaggers and Republicans really READ?

[sakabatou]

14. They at least try....

[HughBeaumont]

50. And if they did, don't their books contain the same damned thing in all of them?

"Everything is Clinton's Fault"
"Democrats really ARE Commies"
"Reagan = Teh Greatest"
"Teh Taxes = Theft at Gunpoint"
"Teh Poor = Lazy Whiners"
"Teh Minoritiezes = the Root of all our problems"
"Corporations = benevolent heroez"
"CEOs = Just Plain BETTER and harder workerz than you"
"Teh Trickle Down = Fair"
"Teh Gubmint = THAH DEVUL"
"Anyone to the left of Lincoln Chafee = Communist"
"George W Bewsh = underrated and undeservedly maligned hero"
"2008 = the end result of Barney Frank, ACORN and Teh CRA"

There, I just saved everyone $500.

[Bigmack]

13. Lotta Repubs buy it for coffee-table status symbols....

.. same people with the "Miss me yet?" bumperstickers with Dumbya's kisser on it.

Dumbfucks.

[Maine-ah]

15. lol...they categorized it as "nonfiction"

[baldguy]

39. Should be in "True Crime"

[niyad]

16. really? and how many of those were bulk sales? I can tell you that very few copies are selling at

my local market (which, alas, seems to sell a large number of reichwing wastes of trees)

by the way, can any of those people actually read?

[Imajika]

17. People should stop whining about this...

...and just accept that this country, at least currently, is not particularly progressive and is made up of more self identified conservatives than liberals. Period. It is what it is. Gallup polls consistently show this.

Of course right wing books do well, there are a lot of book buying, knuckle dragging conservatives around to buy this stuff.

It is not moderates that buy these sorts of books, it is political partisans.

Overall, Bill Clinton is far more popular than Bush - but among the political book buying population, the self identified movement conservative base is simply bigger than its counterpart on the left.

[Amonester]

19. It is the Rich who the government by the Rich FOR the Rich works for

who buy this luxurious toilet paper.

Do the math: 1% of the US population is ____________

The Rich this government works FOR buy the book of the criminal who called them his base (in private, but the clip of it in F911 was leaked to Michael Moore by a unknown Hero or Heroine).

[EFerrari]

20. No, the right wing stink tanks buy in bulk. n/t

[yellerpup]

18. That's everyone who really voted for him!

:evilgrin:

[Capt. America]

21. 54 Million morans

[judesedit]

26. See Clinton Curtis and learn the truth

.

[onehandle]

22. Does it come with crayons? nt

[Occulus]

23. ...As Sales Of Heating Oil Inexplicably Slump"

:D

[Puzzledtraveller]

24. Bargain bin

They are in the 50% bargain bin at my local Kroger, from some of the things I have heard about it it should be classified as fiction.

[judesedit]

25. You forget. Each of the dynasty members and those who owe/own them bought a thousand copies each

More than likely that has a whole hell of a lot to do with it. Bribery and blackmail go a long way for that family, to include Saudi leaders, plus. Unless the American public is mighty interested in his fabricated version of his story. (NON-FICTION????)

Also, it is written in a style even kindergartners can appreciate. Much like Sarah Palin's. Clinton's was written for the interested, intellectually-curious and historians.

[Lithos]

27. Hope it was recycled paper

BTW, this is all institutional purchases. There is not enough "buzz" to claim anything else.

[Hubert Flottz]

28. Haven't you ever bought a gag gift for the family folks you don't like?

That would gag me I know that.

[fortyfeetunder]

65. I could see this a gift for the wrong reasons.

I got a copy from my child who knows I read DU, and this one knows my feelings toward the author.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

29. Non-fiction?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Vinca]

31. In the past, Republican groups have bought books by the truck load

to boost the number on the New York Times bestseller list. Probably the same thing this time. It's only a matter of time before it turns up in the dollar store. As for Bill Clinton's book, it's highest and best use was doorstop.

[newtothegame]

57. By the truckload? Where was this story that I missed it?

As I said in post #56, I think it's a bit presumptive to assume that the whole world agrees with the few of us on DU, and that book sales must be part of some vast conspiracy.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

60. Since you are "new to the game," read the book I referenced...

in post #9. It's not a vast conspiracy; it's out there for all to see (for those who are paying attention).

The Koch brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife, the Bradley Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Adolph Coors Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation (Vicks VapoRub) are some well-known examples. The only things they're concerned about are unfettered free markets, amassing power, and protecting their wealth, just like the BFEE. I'm really surprised so many on this thread are claiming to not know how much influence these individuals and their pet projects (Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, John Birch Society, National Review, Phyllis Schafly, etc.) have wielded over the decades...including buying/distributing books that advance their agenda. Just because you were not aware of it does not make it *not* so.

[Vinca]

64. As I recall, it happened with her first book. Some outfit was using

them as lures to get people to buy subscriptions to their site.

[Greybnk48]

33. Oh, please! I wonder where the * family is stashing the

books that are being fake bought??

And, by the way, to compare that jackass's popularity to the popularity of Clinton at any time in the past 20 years, and imply that the idiot wins, is ludicrous and everyone know's it. EVERYONE.

[newtothegame]

56. Isn't it smarter to admit that there are as many that disagree with us as agree with us?

And to try to change their minds? Instead of assuming that all of America agrees with us and a select few elite collectively bought 2m copies of a single book just to sway opinion? That's a bit tinfoil-hatty isn't it? :shrug:

[COLGATE4]

34. Look for this POS to be a 'free gift' for subsribing to National Review

or some other RW venture. In a month you'll see copies at 7.99 in all the discount stores.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

61. Yup. And then the local Goodwill, along with the abundance of...

Limpballs, Beck, and Ann Coulter offerings.

[Swagman]

36. fiction is popular

[eringer]

37. This fiction by the "decider" soon to be one penny plus shipping on Amazon Marketplace

That guy still makes me sick. Never thought that he was stupid enough to invade Iraq and then, when he did, botch the job by firing all the middle managers in the Pentagon that had the experience to keep the Iraq military and public servants and their families from starving. What an idiot. Worst president ever.
Most folks don't know that Rumsfeld was on his way out the door when 9/11 happened. Tragically, he was the greatest beneficiary of the attack. Thanks to him and his henchmen, many families have to brave through this Christmas because their patriotic loved ones are either over there or gone forever.

[robcon]

38. Big display at Costco.

I don't know how well it sells there, though.

[Release The Hounds]

48. I saw a lady buy one there on Wed, FWIW.

[SylviaD]

41. I think the sales figures are genuine...

...unfortunately. There are more of them than there are of us. :(

[somone]

42. The haves and have-mores always reward their own

[ooglymoogly]

43. Selling speed bumps to those who profit handsomely from their * enabled thuggery

and the gaggle of wannabe sycophants, had no trouble buying those 2 million+ copies of this delusional, anachronistic pulp fiction. Mores the pity there is no poll that can determine how many copies were actually read by the vast reading public searching for substance rather than just to prove a given; that the emperor had no clothes.

[benld74]

44. I saw a copy at my sister's home Thanksgiving day, I said, "I didn't know you read fiction!"

[titaniumsalute]

45. I bought a copy since I was out of TP

[bengalherder]

47. 2.2 million!

That's gonna take up the whole thriftstore! Where ever are they going to put the copies of Dianetics and Rush Limbaugh now, nevermind the 'sweet and savage' romances?

[That Guy 888]

49. "hardcover and e-books" Why the combo?

I wonder how the numbers really breakout and what's being concealed... which pretty much covers anything involving shrub and numbers.

[lunatica]

52. I don't believe it. Just call me cynically jaded by obvious dissinformation techniques

[lanlady]

53. they're stacked up in my local Costco

waist-high, together with the Palin b.s. Wonder how they're selling. Don't seem to be moving.

[Synicus Maximus]

54. According to Amazon they have it listed as the number three

best seller and has been on the top 100 list for 117 days. Unbelievable!

[madokie]

55. I doubt many get read

dickheads who voted for him buying these to try to help to make him look good. In a round about way an effort at making themselves look better.

[dogmom2]

58. what will happen when his... 'Book Bubble' pops,, probably sell it on Amazon for 1 cent. like our .

pensions sold for on his last bubble popping.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

59. If it was a coloring book 14 million of the idiots who voted for him would have bought it.

[JackRiddler]

62. Not much of a surprise -- plus everyone knows it's easy reading.

[jmowreader]

66. Bush did something smart when he got the person to write this

That doesn't happen very often, but here it applies.

Bush didn't write a regular "memoir." Get any president's memoir from Clinton back to whenever they started writing memoirs, and attempt to read it. It's damn near impossible because they're all long, drawn-out things. Clinton's got stuff in there from when he was a little kid. No one cares. I've GOT Clinton's memoir, and I don't think I've made it all the way through it. The juicy stuff is interleaved with memories of grip-and-grins.

Bush, OTOH, knew his base was not going to attempt to read that kind of "memoir" and packed his little collection of plagiarism full of the moments in his presidency that he knew they'd like--the Iraq invasion, 9/11, Katrina, shit like that. So yeah, he might actually be selling this many books--most "presidential memoirs" are not written like Tom Clancy books, and apparently this one is.

[panzerfaust]

67. I wonder if he will read them?

Or, at least, have someone read them to him.



Neither, is my guess.