Video- Newsmax.com offering Palin's book "for just $4.97, a savings of $24 off the cover price"

Wow, the damn thing doesn't even come out until 11/17 and it's down to $9 on Amazon too.

No kidding- Canceled Sanford Book: Manifesto Of A Rising Conservative Star

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

Via TPM, we discover that Senor Argentina Sanford, hoping to become el Presidente Sanford, had a book deal. Key word: Had. Dis. As(s). Ter:

[...] South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was about to publish a serious book, as befits anyone with serious presidential aspirations. But then Sanford went hiking the Appalachian Trail. His wife left him, the press hounded him, his presidential hopes evaporated, and his book deal was cancelled.

Unfortunately for the publisher, Viking, the proofs for its Spring 2010 catalog had already gone to press, complete with a glowing write up of Within Our Means. [...]

Sanford would have explained through "personal" examples "how the GOP went astray over the last eight years." One can only imagine.

"Governor Sanford's down-to-earth voice and common sense principles will give conservative readers a much-needed sense of hope," the catalog promises.

They could always sell it as fiction.

You can read the entire entry here.

Liz Cheney on What's in the Former Vice President's Book

Oh joy, yes please Liz, tell us all about your daddy's fab new book!

For Liz Cheney, it's the project of a lifetime: working with her dad, former Vice President
Dick Cheney, on his still-untitled bio being published by Simon & Schuster's Threshold Editions. She gave us some insight on what the story she's helping to research and write will cover. "It's going to be a political memoir of unparalleled interest and significance," she promised us. "His career has spanned four decades, service at the highest levels of Congress, in the White House, at the Pentagon, and in the private sector." The stories will stretch from his being kicked out of Yale, twice, to stringing power lines across the West, through his days as former President George H. W. Bush's defense secretary and eventually W's veep. "He has seen and been part of most of the key policy debates and some of the most momentous events since the early 1970s. It's a great story and—on a personal note—really special for me to have the chance to work on it with him," says Liz. "It's just a wonderful project, and he's a wonderful dad and great American."

Cheney Seeks Book Deal

I hope someone has the cojones to put it in the Fiction section. This guy has a great working title- "I'm right, you're wrong". heh

Former Vice President Dick Cheney "is actively shopping a memoir about his life in politics and service in four presidential administrations, a work that would add to what is already an unusually dense collection of post-Bush-presidency memoirs that will offer a collective rebuttal to the many harshly critical works released while the writers were in office and beyond," the New York Times reports.

"A person familiar with discussions Mr. Cheney has had with publishers said he was seeking more than $2 million for his advance. That sum may prove hard to get in this economic climate, especially given his generally low approval ratings, which publishers view as a potential -- but not certain -- harbinger for sales."

Cartoon via.

Make Rupert proud: Name Sarah Palin's vanity book

By GottaLaff

Mudflats is having a title-off. Feel free to go over and vote. The titles are hilarious, and so apt. Random sampling:

• Griftus Interruptus (I’ll Do it Till the Court Tells Me to Stop) [Rob in Ca]
• Winkin' Blinkin' and Todd [GA Peach
• I Can Do Whatever I Want Until the Courts Tell Me I Can’t - Including Also This Book [kettletop]
• Palin Place [Jim Sutton]
• If You Can Read This Title You’re Too Smart For This Book [blooper]
• In What Respect, God? [Paula]
• Carpe per Diem [Rob]
• Also, Too Sprach Sarahthustra [Freakout in Kansas]
• My Children are Off Limits, or, a Personal Journey Through the Lives of my Children [MimiC]
• Baked Alaskan and Other Recipes for Disaster [John]
• Palinocchio; The Sometimes True Store of a Religious Puppet Who Turns Maver-icky [WakeUpAmerica]
• SO THERE, Katie. [Martha]
• Nonsense and Nonsensibility [dee]
• As if I Really Wrote This [kimosabe]

Report: Sarah Palin signs book deal. Who's writing it?

By GottaLaff

If she writes like she talks, there will be at least 3 volumes worth of garbled toos and alsos... if she writes at all, that is.

Now for the fun part. Guess who her publisher is. Go ahead, guess:

Sarah Palin, Alaska's governor and last year's Republican vice-presidential candidate, has signed a deal to write her memoirs with publisher HarperCollins, the Anchorage Daily News reported on Tuesday.

Palin, who was Senator John McCain's running mate in their losing 2008 election campaign, did not disclose how much she would be paid by the publisher, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Poor Pitiful Palin, she just wants to set the record straight. If only ::sniffle:: the big bad pwess hadn't ::sniffle, snuffle:: tweated her so ::waaaah!:: badly, she wouldn't have to ::booohoooo!:: go to all this stoopit twouble:

"There have been so many things written and said through mainstream media that have not been accurate, and it will be nice through an unfiltered forum to get to speak truthfully about who we are and what we stand for and what Alaska is all about," Palin said in an interview published on the newspaper's website.

Bobby Jindal Gets Book Deal

Let's hope his ghost writers write better than he speaks.

"In a move almost certain to fuel fresh speculation about his national ambitions," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said that he "has agreed to write a book for a conservative publishing house about his life and policy ideas," the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

"The book is tentatively scheduled for release in 2010... In recent years, book authorship has become a virtual requirement for presidential aspirants."

Meghan McCain gets book deal

By GottaLaff

I've got to hand it to Meghan, she's going places:

The New York Observer reports Meghan McCain, the daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), just signed a book deal with an advance in the "high six figures."

"Sources say Hyperion has prevailed over at least three other publishers in an auction that began earlier this week, following a round of meetings during which the in-your-face young conservative and the literary agent she shares with her father, Sterling Lord Literistic president Flip Brophy, discussed a number of possible approaches to the book with editors around town."

Though Ms. McCain has done many television interviews, she's been unwilling to talk about her father's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Perhaps she will give her opinions on Palin in the book.

President Obama's sister signs book deal

By GottaLaff

Candlewick Press tells us that Prez O's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, a teacher in Hawaii, has a book deal:

Ladder to the Moon, Maya Soetoro-Ng’s first book, is inspired by Maya and Barack’s mother as well as by Maya’s four-year-old daughter. What lessons, the author wonders, might her daughter have learned from her grandmother had the two ever met? In Ladder to the Moon, Maya Soetoro-Ng pays homage to her mother’s tradition of storytelling — and celebrates her mother’s enduring legacy of service — with an unforgettable story of love and compassion being passed along generations. Brimming with the beauty and magic of the night, Ladder to the Moon is a modern-day fable that will charm readers of any generation with its lush prose and timeless message about discovering one's own strength. Illustrator and publication date are to be determined.

Watch for Boss Limbaugh to make this into a bad thing.

Cartoon of the Day

Via.

Cartoon of the Day

Via.

Obama Signed Book Deal Just Before Taking Office

Of course there's nothing wrong with it, it looks like the type of thing that would have been in the works for a while (it's just an adaptation fer christsakes). That won't stop someone somewhere (::cough:: Fox News ::cough::) bitching about it. Via Taegan-

Just a few days before being sworn in, President Obama signed a children's book deal that came with a $500,000 advance, the Washington Times reports.

"Analysts say there don't appear to be any rules that would bar such transactions after a president takes office, but it's unclear whether an incoming or sitting president has ever signed a book deal upon entering the White House."

The project calls for an abridged version of his book Dreams From My Father for middle-school-aged children.

Rod Blagojevich gets six-figure book deal

By GottaLaff

Apparently, if you have an unpronounceable name, use words like &%!@! and *#*@!, make a few shady deals while in public office, and get impeached, you are rewarded with a book deal:

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has landed a six-figure book deal to tell his story, his spokesman confirmed to CNN Monday. [...]

The book, which has a working title of “The Governor,” is scheduled to be released by Phoenix Books in October.

Glenn Selig, Blagojevich's publicist and founder of The Publicity Agency, said the governor will divulge information that will be “embarrassing” to himself and others.

See? Now that's the American way.

Plouffe Scores Big Book Deal

Another damn book? Guess it's stimulating the publishing industry...

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe "has agreed to a seven-figure deal to write a book about last year's presidential election," the AP reports.

The title: The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory.

According to a statement issued by Viking, the book will offer a unique, high-level account, including "the deliberations about whether to run against long odds, the epic primary battle with Hillary Clinton, the drama of the general election campaign against John McCain and the strategic roads taken -- and not taken... The book will also detail the business lessons to be learned from the formation and the functioning of an unprecedented $1 billion start-up -- use of technology, crisis management, grass roots, and personnel management."

When the illiterate write books: Joe, Sarah, this one's for you

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

Typing Without a Clue is the apt title of a piece in today's New York Times. Joe the Bamboozler and Scrambled Sarah have book deals. That's enough to make anyone's head explode, but Timothy Egan (thankfully subbing for MoDo today) tries to talk us down:

I have a question for Joe: Do you want me to fix your leaky toilet?

I didn’t think so. And I don’t want you writing books. Not when too many good novelists remain unpublished. Not when too many extraordinary histories remain unread. Not when too many riveting memoirs are kicked back at authors after 10 years of toil. Not when voices in Iran, North Korea or China struggle to get past a censor’s gate. [...]

With a résumé full of failure, he now thinks he can join the profession of Mark Twain, George Orwell and Joan Didion.

I'm not talked down yet. I'm not even talked sideways.

Next up may be Sarah Palin, who is said to be worth nearly $7 million if she can place her thoughts between covers. Publishers: with all the grim news of layoffs and staff cuts at the venerable houses of American letters, can we set some ground rules for these hard times? Anyone who abuses the English language on such a regular basis should not be paid to put words in print.

Here’s Palin’s response, after Matt Lauer asked her when she knew the election was lost:

“I had great faith that, you know, perhaps when that voter entered that voting booth and closed that curtain that what would kick in for them was, perhaps, a bold step that would have to be taken in casting a vote for us, but having to put a lot of faith in that commitment we tried to articulate that we were the true change agent that would progress this nation.”

I have no idea what she said in that thicket of words.

When I write my TPC posts, even when I'm rushed, I actually try to sound coherent, and nearly always try to make a point (I say nearly always, because sometimes I depend on others to do that for me). But Scrambled Sarah apparently hasn't gotten a handle on that, yet she's getting millions and I'm humbly requesting donations from you, our generous readers.

Writing is hard, even for the best wordsmiths. Ernest Hemingway said the most frightening thing he ever encountered was “a blank sheet of paper.” And Winston Churchill called the act of writing a book “a horrible, exhaustive struggle, like a long bout of painful illness.” [...]

The idea that someone who stumbled into a sound bite can be published, and charge $24.95 for said words, makes so many real writers think the world is unfair. [...]

For the others — you friends of celebrities penning cookbooks, you train wrecks just out of rehab, you politicians with an agent but no talent — stop soaking up precious advance money.

I know: publishers say they print garbage so that real literature, which seldom makes any money, can find its way into print. True, to a point. But some of them print garbage so they can buy more garbage. [...]

I guess that’s why we have karaoke, for fantasy night. If only there was such a thing for failed plumbers, politicians or celebrities who think they can write.

And even some bloggers.

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski to Write Advice Book

Aw c'mon people, give me a fracking break. She's 41 years old, grew up in a wealthy and affluent family, went to private school and then a toney college. Mika's the person to write an advice book?

Morning Joe co-host Mika Brezinski has parlayed her show's buzz into a book deal. In spring 2010, Weinstein Books will publish Sometimes You Have to Take a Step Back, "a motivational book aimed at women, based on Mika's own personal and professional triumphs and failures." Topics will include the "importance of remaining equally humble in the face of great success and seemingly devastating setbacks."