Bad enough that a Sarah Palin book will be an inevitability. Although, what do you want a bet
I had great faith that, you know, perhaps when that voter entered that voting booth and closed that curtain that what would kick in for them was, perhaps, a bold step that would have to be taken in casting a vote for us, but having to put a lot of faith in that commitment we tried to articulate that we were the true change agent that would progress this nation.
she’ll have a ghostwriter? (yes, that’s Palin’s response to Matt Lauer after the election. Make of it what you will. If you can make anything of it.) So we won’t even get the benefit of enough fun Palinisms to fill a 365 desk calendar for our trouble. But that’s a ways out. For now we have the travesty of the forthcoming book by Joe (no, I’m not going to link to it. ew. Because there’s nothing to see yet, no cover image, even, up on Amazon for a book supposedly releasing in December.)
Timothy Egan nicely skewers the rush to publish nonwriters:
The unlicensed pipe fitter known as Joe the Plumber is out with a book this month, just as the last seconds on his 15 minutes are slipping away. I have a question for Joe: Do you want me to fix your leaky toilet?
I didn’t think so. And I don’t want you writing books. Not when too many good novelists remain unpublished. Not when too many extraordinary histories remain unread. Not when too many riveting memoirs are kicked back at authors after 10 years of toil. Not when voices in Iran, North Korea or China struggle to get past a censor’s gate.
And, perhaps most pertinently, as publishers have laid off hundreds of employees this week, Egan asks,
Publishers: with all the grim news of layoffs and staff cuts at the venerable houses of American letters, can we set some ground rules for these hard times? Anyone who abuses the English language on such a regular basis should not be paid to put words in print.
Stay tuned for news of a six-figure advance for Palin’s book. Publishers can’t lay off that crack.
