Progressives Losing the Book Wars. [View All]

[caseymoz]

On The Huffington Post, in A Tale of Two Obama Books: Why Do Progressives Still Not Get It? Jennifer Nix writes about the problems of getting a liberal-progressive book to print ahead of the election, while conservative books like the Obama Nation by Jerome Corsi are generated and brought to the public on the fast-track. I think maybe she is wrong. What can progressives do if we do get it?

For those who don't have time to read two articles right now, she writes about the problem of getting Bob Kuttner's book Obama's Challenge, out to the public prior to the election. Publishing and book companies are moving lethargically, and efforts to run it and give it out free at the Democratic convention through Book-on-Demand have been met with anger by the book industry.

I remember in 2004 when I bought "Unfit for Command" for $3, just to read the opposition's views. I figured that $3 from Barnes & Noble wouldn't help the conservative cause too much. That much probably covered just the stores stocking expenses, with maybe a sweet 10% profit guaranteed to them.

I didn't realize then that the book was one of the conservatives' bulk buys, the purpose of which was to put the book immediately at the top of the Best Seller lists. It had already been counted as sold, pushed to the top of the chart, and was being resold at pamphlet prices. Upon reading the first chapter of the book, I realized that I had overpaid. It was "Unfit" for toilet paper, which sells for 8 rolls at $3. I haven't checked, but I can probably pick it up on Amazon for a quarter, not including shipping. The only way this book possibly made it into the top 1,000 was-- conservative welfare for writers.

But that's beside the point. I read Al Franken's book at the time, and paid full price for it. There was no bulk buying, no push to the top of the charts. No impulse buying price at Barnes & Noble. I had to really decide to make the purchase.

Franken's book is a bad example, though. It's election year books about the candidates that we somehow have to support, promote and sell to the public. Bulk buying to push books to number one probably might not be an option-- progressives just don't have the billionaire-ideologues that conservative Republicans do. Book clubs and such only reach other progressive readers.

The print-on-demand might be one way of getting progressive books out during an election year. But really, I don't have the solution. Without billionaire supporters, we simply can't match what the political right can do in terms of pushing their books. Using donated organization funds, IMHO, wouldn't be competitive. For the price people would have to donate, they might as well buy the books themselves.

I might suggest organizing some kind of "reading tree." People who donate to a progressive cause at a certain level might receive a book with the idea that they'll pass it on to a friend, who promises to pass it on to another friend. Unfortunately, this chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And it's slow. Too slow for an election year.

So, I ask people here to try to think of a solution to this problem. Think of a way ants can defeat an elephant. But at least progressives are ants with a will and an organization, unlike fleas.