Between the Covers

So want to know how to make it to the top of Amazon's sales list? Re-print the only biography of a previously unknown "celebrity" in four days and flood your distributors with copies.

Apparently that is exactly what happened to the only known biography of Governor Sarah Palin, entitled Sarah by Kaylene Johnson. John McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate put the Epicenter Press presses into overdrive as they cranked out a paperback edition of the tome in an eighteen hour digital printing job.

By Tuesday afternoon, Epicenter had delivered 40,000 copies of the hardcover book to its distributors and was gearing up to print a paperback edition. According to the New York Times, by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the book had climbed to #54 on Amazon.

Epicenter Press is no doubt laughing all the way to the bank. Known as "a leading trade book publisher of general nonfiction titles about Alaska and a leading publisher of books about sled dog racing and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race," the specialty publisher is suddenly finding itself mainstream.

I know you're waiting for the punch line--and I could suggest many--but in this case, the material seems to speak for itself. Actually what puzzles me most, is not who would want to read about Palin, but what that book could possible say that couldn't be said in a magazine article.

And they said the Barbaro story wasn't "bookworthy....."