Conservatives turn against publisher

Conservatives amuse me when they do this. They're silly clowns.

Regnery Publishing specializes in conservative books. The 1950s incarnation of Regnery, despite its conservative leanings, had some scholarly appeal outside of right-wing circles. But today's Regnery is a purveyor of sheer hackery, the publisher of volumes full of frivolous attacks and lies against political opponents. (A commenter on DU says Regnery puts out "some of the most God-awful books ever printed.")

Eagle Publishing, which now owns Regnery, is now the target of a federal lawsuit by 5 Regnery authors who claim the company's book club sales deprive them of royalties. One of the plaintiffs is Jerome Corsi, cockamamie coauthor of the outrageous 'Unfit For Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry'. Another is Richard Miniter, who authored a book titled (you're gonna burst out laughing at this one) 'Shadow War: The Untold Story Of How Bush Is Winning The War On Terror'.

Eagle sells these right-wing books at a discount to its own book clubs and other organizations. This scheme is a mainstay of modern conservative activism. It draws attention to these tomes, pumps up their ranking on bestseller lists (which induces bookstores to stock too many copies of these books and crowd out other volumes), and helps advance the conservative (bowel) movement. From what I can tell, however, the author would probably get less money per copy sold.

Yes, that's per copy sold - not total. These authors actually think people will buy their shit if they don't have the right-wing book clubs to promote their garbage! How delusional can they possibly be? They're suing their publisher even though they probably make a lot more money than they would if their books weren't sold through the book clubs. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth!

I'm a writer, and I earn some income from the book I wrote, so I know a little about the publishing industry. I've been a victim of illegal price-fixing by booksellers and the excuses that are conjured up in an attempt to justify it. But I'm not dumb enough to expect to Make more Money if I only allowed my book to be ordered straight from the publisher.

I can't say for certain whether the plaintiffs have a case, but personally I think they've gotten greedy. Why else would these so-called writers sue over the practice that lets their books sell as much as they do? But since I know how much writers get ripped off by greedy corporations, it's hard to say for sure they don't have a case - despite their own greed and their many lies in their books. It's a case of wingnuts versus wingnuts.

The authors should join me in supporting legislation to stop corporations in the book business from denying fair royalties to writers (you know, the folks like me who actually do the work of putting books together). Action must be taken now to halt this exploitation. Maybe now conservatives will abandon their catatonic support of unregulated corporatism now that some of their own intelligentsia claim to have been scammed by a right-wing corporation.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/books/07cons.html)