Posted on 08/17/2005 6:26:53 AM PDT by OESY
It is the ultimate Washington story, told by the ultimate Washington chronicler. But in Washington and just about everywhere else, sales of "The Secret Man," Bob Woodward's story of the source known as Deep Throat, have been underwhelming.
At Politics and Prose, a well-known independent bookstore in Washington, sales were "not very good, compared to expectations," said Mark LaFramboise, who ordered 400 copies of the book for the store. As of last week, Politics and Prose had sold "60-something," he said.
"I expected it to be a blockbuster," he said. "I was wrong."
At Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City, "the book didn't sell at all," said Jim Harris, the store's owner. Of the 50 copies he ordered, Mr. Harris said, only 4 have sold, and he has sent 40 back to the distributor.
"I was flabbergasted," he said.
By most measures, the performance of "The Secret Man" would be an unquestioned success. The book, Mr. Woodward's account of his relationship with the source who helped him and Carl Bernstein break open the Watergate scandal in the early 1970's, has sold 61,000 copies in its first five weeks on sale, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks sales in bookstores and other outlets that usually account for about 70 percent of a new book's sales.
The book has also been on the New York Times best-seller list for five weeks, starting at No. 4 and ranking No. 12 on the list to be published Sunday, reflecting sales in the week ended Aug. 6....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The MSM's liberal bias is now well known. We can thank bloggers and forums like ours for that.
The NYTimes best seller list is their own. Borders has their own, as does B&N. Wonder where the statistics come from.
I believe that's an advance against sales. If he doesn't sell enough books to earn the $4 million advance, doesn't he have to refund the difference?
It was a trivial story the whole time. History is cruel but quite accurate.
Bob Woodward answered the phone when top FBI agents called who wanted to take down a President. Felt had the power of the top investigative organization in the world. Woodward played stenographer for a creep. It's not impressive. Maybe criminal. Certainly nothing to be proud of...
Woodward played stenographer for a creep.
It's not impressive reporting. Maybe criminal. Certainly nothing to be proud of... The people are picking up on the truth and not buying the book.
Yes. The pony (Nixon) died about a decade ago. Now, no one cares. Especially, when it seems that "Deep Throat" was more of a crook than Nixon was.
Don't you just hate it when 35 years of phony leftist altruism croaks ?
LOL! It doesn't even sell inside the beltway.
"If he doesn't sell enough books to earn the $4 million advance, doesn't he have to refund the difference?"
Nope. No author has to pay back an advance. As an author, I go for the biggest advance my agent can get me. Although sales have to meet the level of the advance in order to receive royalty checks, if the advance is big enough...I really don't care if the book sells or not!
However, the movie did fantistically well ... oh, oops, sorry, wrong story.
You are SO right! Along with what you said, with the 24/7 news cycle, the MSM has to "juice up" its "news" -- either make a big deal out of nothing and squeeze it for all it's worth or just out-and-out fabricate a story out of whole cloth (ala Dan Rather).
Woodward's mistake was his assumption that the story that comprised his one and only career accomplishment in journalism would still hold the public's interest 30+ years later.
So the moral is: Don't procrastinate and publish your goods while they're still fresh in people's minds, hehe.
For some of us, Watergate is where Bill Richardson took himself to interview Monica for a job at the UN so Bill could stash her out-of-town until things died down.
You'd think Bill Richardson would have more important things to do, like keep an eye out for corruption in the Oil For Food program there at the UN, or make sure that the weapons inspectors were able to do their jobs in Iraq.
But no, the friggin US Ambassador left New York, flew to Washington DC, took a cab to the Watergate to interview a 23 year old woman with no discernable clerical skills. But Clinton cared more about getting Bin Laden than Bush did.
MY *$$!
Can't wait to see the campaign if old Richardson ever gets the nod as VP on the Dem ticket, especially if Hillary's on top(sic).
Pinz
Nobody freakin' cares!
EXACTLY!
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