As news of price wars obsessed the publishing world today, one political celebrity disclosed some hefty book purchases. According to filings from the Sarah Palin PAC, the former Alaskan governor bought $47,777 worth of copies of her memoir from HarperCollins. UPDATE 1: The LA Times cites reports that the Palin PAC spent more than $63,000 on book purchases.
If the campaign team paid the $13.50 hardcover price currently featured on Amazon, those campaign dollars bought more than 3,500 copies of the book. If they paid the full $28.99 hardcover price, they bought more than 1,600 copies. However, if they paid the $9.99 harcover price batted around during the Great Walmart and Amazon Price War, they could have purchased more than 4,700 copies of “Going Rogue: An American Life.”
Here’s more from the National Journal report: “The papers filed over the weekend show SarahPAC spent $47,777 on copies of “Going Rogue” during the last 6 months of the year … The FEC reports show Palin has been purchasing the book to send to donors, some of whom got a copy after contributing a certain amount to the PAC.” (Via Gawker)
UPDATE 2: A reader responds in the comments: “All authors have a ‘Author purchases’ clause in their contract. The amount paid for those books varies from contract to contract and comes with re-sale restrictions. Those copies are considered royalty free and are not counted by a publisher when calculating copies sold. Thus the comment that this was a way to the top of bestseller list is wildly incorrect.”