Posted on 06/14/2003 7:53:17 PM PDT by kattracks
According to renowned New York City literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, those fabulous book sale figures racked up by Hillary Clinton's "Living History" may turn out to be mere publishing industry hype.
Reacting to Tuesday's reports Mrs. Clinton sold 200,000 copies a day after her book's release, Goldberg told syndicated radio hosts John Batchelor and Paul Alexander, "I'm told you can't get those figures in one day."
Citing another publishing source, she added, "They do have a system for [tallying up early book sales] but they doubt that they were able to access it that swiftly."
While Goldberg said her sources didn't have an accurate sales figure for Hillary's book, she put the number at "way below 200,000."
What about Simon & Schuster's million copy initial press run? Goldberg said the figure is just public relations hype and that the first run printing was probably no more than 350,000 copies.
The longtime publishing maven explained there would be no need for Simon & Schuster to print a million books. If they needed more, "you push the button on the press and you can crank out another 50,000 in a 24-hour cycle and ship them out."
In fact, sources in the field are reporting disappointing sales for Mrs. Clinton's book, Goldberg contended. "I can tell you a store that gets a call from the New York Times best seller list, and they're looking over there at 50 copies that haven't been bought."
She agreed with the characterization of Mrs. Clinton's book as "a loss leader" and predicted, "If this book doesn't take off over the weekend [Simon & Schuster] is going to be eating a lot of these copies."
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I agree that the whole deal is a sham but I still don't understand what S&S's motivation is. What do they gain from giving campaign contribution? Are they so delusional that they actually think Hillary will become president some day? The influence of a junior minority-party senator does not seem like it's worth that much money.
Heck, even "Sheets" Byrd can't be charmed by Hillary, as Rush described on his program on last week.
You know, I do wonder where these are being printed. Presumably somewhere in the US although Cuba would be more appropriate.
Pray for GW and The Truth
Sorry, kat, but the first ten words shot the credibility of anything that might follow. Trixie hasn't been a literary agent in YEARS. What I'd like to know, is what the sales figures are on the book Trixie promised she'd get published for Linda Tripp.
As much as I hate the Clintons ... that's how much I hate Trixie (and no, I don't know her personally). She used FR to steal a following, and what was much worse, destroyed Linda Tripp's life, without ever planning to help her, for political advantage. If I could tolerate Trixie, I could just as well be a socialist.
Weird Amazon Stats For Hillary's Book (Little Or NO Ratings In Individual States)
Maybe, maybe not. [Not to deny a motive to stretch the truth here.] When I was involved in sourcing reengineering for a F500 in the early '90s, we studied the Wal-Mart "Just-in-Time" process. In brief, every time a barcode was swiped that information was transmitted directly to a vendor. Materials management software, such as MIMS, have the capability to establish reorder points, reorder quantity, delivery timeframes, payment release, and so on. The Wal-Mart JiT model at that time required the vendor to make a timely delivery and actually stock the shelf at each unit. I would suspect any of the large book publishers, when profit is on the line via a reseller demanding continually increased levels of performance, have the capabilities to review inventory quantities in each market and respond appropriately. The huge resellers likely have the leverage to base their payments on actual sales rather than delivered inventory. It just depends on how close a relationship is established.
Mom and pop stores seldom have the wherewithal to participate at the highest technological level, but my local sole-proprietor bookstore has inventory management software that is connected to her vendors.
Consequently, I'd suggest that it is possible to gather and consolidate this data at any moment in time, especially if a publisher wants to get paid in a timely fashion. And, if you use your credit card at a vendor that has level 3 data capabilities - like Wal-Mart - Admiral Poindexter will add your purchase of Lying History to his TIA files.
From the NY Times online Bestseller List:
" Rankings reflect sales, for the week ending June 7..."
So her book would not be listed there yet.
As far as selling 200,000 in one day, I suspect Harry Potter, or maybe a Stephen King, have more audience and would be hard pressed to come close to that figure. So 200000 for the first day is likely bunkum, or at dishonest best with presales tossed in.
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