Sarah Palin has a memoir coming out next month, Going Rogue: An American Life. You can pre-order it from Amazon for $9–the same at Walmart. Buy it at Books-a-Million for $15.65.
I very well may buy this book, but should I go for the $9 or the $15 price? Why are deep discounters able to discount some books so deeply? Should I care about paying too little for a book, or should I let the publishers figure out their stupid business models by themselves?
In related news, political pundit Bernie Quigley talks about the messages within the titles of Palin’s and Mitt Romney’s upcoming books. Romney’s book, to be released in March, is called No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. Quigley says that title focuses on the past.
“There is hubris and a kind of conspicuous arrogance to it, which he asks us to wear with our chests out. Romney’s title suggests a full endorsement of the Bush II paradigm without a moment’s introspection,” he says. “Going Rogue, however, suggests a new direction, a new adventure, something just ahead there in the great unknown. It is a very good title and speaks in essence to the frontier spirit of those who venture beyond the Hudson River or the Beltway.”
The word rogue may suggest adventure but it also has more dubious connotations, as a noun and as an adjective. From various online dictionaries:
I don’t mention this as a political statement. I just wonder what’s so great about going rogue? One man’s adventure is another’s misadventure.
But I won’t complain if publishers want to go rogue by lowering hardcover prices. Who can afford many of these 35 dollar monsters?
I think that’s what we’re getting and have gotten with politicians–an adventure for some and misadventure for others. Do you think Americans prefer to see themselves as rogues in the world or in modern times? I think we may.