Posted on 09/28/2010 12:34:18 AM PDT by raccoonradio
A devastating Nov. 2 defeat could cost Gov. Deval Patrick more than his lofty position and promising political career - it could scuttle the happily-ever-after ending to his million-dollar “inspirational” memoir and turn it into a bookstore bomb, experts said.
“It would be a horrendous event,” said Hub book agent and attorney John Taylor “Ike” Williams. “The publisher would have a hard time with that book.”
The success of Patrick’s 200-page autobiography - titled “A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life” and priced at $21.99 - hinges largely on the governor raising his national profile.
That’s a far-fetched feat for an ousted, one-term wonder.
“I assume the senior editors are saying, ‘You told us this book would ride on the coattails of the Obama book,’ ” Williams said, noting the similarities between the rags-to-riches tales of Patrick and his pal, President Obama.
David Drake, a spokesman for Patrick’s publisher Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, declined to comment, other than to say the book is due out in April.
The publisher’s initial optimism when the governor landed the deal in March 2008 was clear from Patrick’s reported advance of $1.35 million - a staggering sum for a first-time author.
At the going rate, Patrick would earn out his advance - which is usually when royalties begin to kick in - after selling 450,000 hardcovers, a level few but the best-selling superstars reach.
“It’s a pretty substantial risk,” said Peter Burford, a veteran independent publisher in New Jersey. “Unless he has some other ace up his sleeve . . . I would say good luck to all of them.”
Scott Hartwig of Calif.-based Rose Ave Press, which specializes in smaller-name memoirs, said he had misgivings about Patrick’s sizable advance. “I question the logic of giving that big of an advance,” Hartwig said. “Especially if he’s not effective politically.”
He added that the niche industry relies on the author making headlines, or finding a way to be exceptionally relevant. Otherwise, he said, “It could look kind of silly.”
With polls showing Patrick in a virtual dead heat with GOP rival Charlie Baker, Big Apple-based publishing consultant and author Michael Ellsberg suggested Patrick recast the book as a liberal manifesto: “Come read the book that the right wing doesn’t want you to read.”
“The Tea Party is really starting to scare Democrats,” Ellsberg added. “If they can paint it that he was the first hit, and he’s going to rise up again and keep fighting, that would be a good angle.”
For his part, Patrick said the fate of his book isn’t on his radar: “I’m not thinking about that right now.”
Howie Carr’s book also out in April...his first book was a best seller (BROTHERS BULGER)
....you reached for the golden ring with a stick and got stuck in the eye...maybe your next book can explain how you failed
Hey, they paid him the advance. It’s up to them to sell the book.
See me crying?
Charlie Baker = Deval Patrick in Whiteface (with a militant homosexual radical running mate, too !).
No more Socialist GOP RINOs !
That should work just fine, judging by the success of left-wing talk radio giant Air Amerika.
Liberals always, ALWAYS get huge advances. Then the books end up on the rack at the Dollar Store.
And nobody ever brings that up the next time a liberal is going to write a book. I can’t remember...I think it was Harry Reid’s book that met this fate, I saw it and had to laugh.
Hmmmm... Let me check my calendar here...
Just as I thought! The primary is over! Quitcher bitchen and get on board.
Of do you think it is good politics when Murkowski, Castle and Crist pull their petulant whiner act?
But Jim Wright's Reflections of a Public Man sold Millions of copies... In case lots... To unions and business interests everywhere!
...noting the similarities between the Reds-to-riches tales of Patrick and his pal, President Obama...
Fixed it.
You obviously know very little about MA politics, so here is a brief primer...
I supported NONE of the candidates in the GOP primary for Governor (why is that, you ask ? Because no candidate, liberal or Conservative is anything more than a powerless FIGUREHEAD as Governor as a Republican. With a 90% Democrat legislature and 10% RINO liberal minority, the overwhelming leftist majority can do as it pleases and then blame all their disasters on the GOP Governor, damaging what little standing we have left.
Also, MA has had nothing but a string of disastrous RINO leftist Governors for most of the past 20 years and has all but killed the party there as a result. Top-down has been an unheralded disaster, and Socialist clown Charlie Baker is another Weld/Willard clone, who will do nothing but sit by and allow more leftist garbage through (and willingly, too). Add to that, not even Deval Patrick would be so in-your-face about giving the middle finger to family values as Baker has with choosing militant homosexual Richard Tisei, a Socialist RINO, as his running mate.
What must be done in MA is that the party leadership under Jennifer Nassour must be tossed aside and center-right activists committed to those values (and not far-left insanity) take over. Run candidates for the legislature, Congress, other statewide offices and achieve a solid minority bloc that has power to sustain a veto.
Lastly, after those above actions are achieved, THEN you run a center-right reformist for Governor, who will be able to be an effective leader and not a powerless dunce. Not even Ronald Reagan running for Governor under the current conditions in the state would be able to achieve jack squat with a 90% hostile body.
Now do you get it ? Or if you want a few more examples, Baker won’t have the power to do squat about Senate appointments or redistricting. Again, even if he were a Conservative, you can’t govern with 90% of the legislature squarely against you. Anything else you want to ask, let me know. Dear RaccoonRadio has been less than honest with confronting the questions I’ve posed to him, he is content to have a Pyrrhic victory with Baker, which is less than useless. If MA is to have a Socialist Governor, let it be a Democrat. As for Murkowski, Crist and Castle, these are precisely the kind of people we opposed for being too left-wing. Charlie Baker makes them all look like Jesse Helms by comparison — and is it any shock that jackass Karl Rove is doing his damndest to prop up left-wingers like Baker and Mark Kirk, the last dying gasp of the Socialist establishment in the GOP.
I agree. Baker may not be the perfect candidate but he’s way better than Deval. I will happily vote against Deval!
Reality is that sometimes it’s voting against someone rather than for a candidate. Would I like a more conservative GOP candidate? Of course but we have to deal in reality and work with what we have.
Or maybe it was just money-funnel scheme from the beginning, like the cattle futures money-funnel scheme to the Clintons a few years back.
The other “Republican” who ran was no good either.
I will also happily vote against Deval. I also have known Richard Tisei for many years due to some family connections and I have to say I like him as a person despite his obvious drawbacks, lol.
I understand your frustration. Living in New Jersey, we were in the same boat for a lot of years. But we now have a reasonably sized minority in the Legislature and a solid conservative Governor, which is your prescription to a “T”.
But do you think it might be good to bump of Deval Patrick just to bump off Deval Patrick? He seems like one politician that we would all be better off if his career was over. I’m not kidding about the Obama II thing. If BHO somehow manages to pull off 2012, who do you think the Donks are going to put up in 2016?
Always vote against a (D). Often vote against an (R) incumbent in a primary. Only way to win the war.
So, does all this mean that you would not mind another four years of Mr. Patrick?
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