this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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politics

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[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 80 points 11 months ago (4 children)

What, the usual GOP modus operandi of "Launder Russian money by buying a shitload of these books to force them onto best-seller lists and then give them away at our klan rallies" isn't happening now?

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago

She may be dumb enough to think people were actually buying those books.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Inb4 she's next year's new RINO.

[–] slurpeesoforion@startrek.website 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Why rhino next year when you can horse this year?

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[–] brothershamus@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Man web search is getting really bad. I can't find where that happened and normally it would be pretty easy. Was that a Bush II-era thing or was that a Trump thing?

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It's a standard way to funnel campaign donations into your personal bank account. You negotiate a big percentage of each book sell with the publisher or self publish, have a ghost writer whip out a book, then use campaign money to buy the books to hand out at rallies.

So you get a 30% cut of each sale and you buy 1mil of books with politcal donations, boom! You just got 300k, and you profit from any rube actually buying the book out in the world.

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[–] Vant@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's a common thing where they game the system to appear on best seller lists, but the Russian money thing is speculation. But it's surprisingly easy to do even without Russian funds.

The myth of the conservative bestseller

The GOP’s big bulk book-buying machine is boosting Republicans on the bestseller lists

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

Just to add, there's a reason the GOP and Conservatives are obsessed with the NY Times. I used to work in the Wall Street area, and all the top executives read it religiously. Every wannabe MBA reads it too.

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[–] Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world 54 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The Venn diagram of people who read and people who care about MTG is an "8"

[–] Why9@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (3 children)

If those people knew their numbers or even knew what a venn diagram was, they would be unfathomably angry

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[–] marx2k@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)
[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The venn diagram of people who read and people who care about MTG is boobs

[–] remus989@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hey! You leave boobs out of this!

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[–] BustinJiber@lemmy.world 52 points 11 months ago (1 children)
  1. Tell everyone reading books is bad.
  2. Write a book.
  3. Profit.
[–] metallic_substance@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well, in this case:

~~3. Profit~~

There is hope for the world

[–] TechyDad@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

She forgot step 2a) Have some political action committees purchase thousands of copies of your book to make it appear on bestseller lists despite few actual humans buying copies.

[–] Meltrax@lemmy.world 39 points 11 months ago (2 children)

She can read?

She can write??

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] Gott@lemmy.world 31 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Their lack of literacy would explain the poor sales numbers.

[–] Introversion@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

You’d think they’d be stocking up on burnables for winter, though?

[–] WhollyGuacamole@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

Most likely a ghostwriter.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 32 points 11 months ago (1 children)

She wrote a book for people who refuse to read.

[–] Rakonat@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Normally all of these books are straight trash but GOP PACs buys up thousands of copies to get them on best seller lists. Greene seemingly doesn't have support of a competent PAC that knows how to grift. So while on the surface this makes her look out of touch, reading deeper the low sales also mean her support from the party is thinner than her resume.

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[–] clericc@feddit.de 25 points 11 months ago

Another reader joked that the book had nothing to do with Magic: The Gathering

heh

[–] quinkin@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] Pacmanlives@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Amazing what a ghost writer can do lol

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[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 19 points 11 months ago

ranking 9,735 among its best-selling books as of Monday, November 27

I watched a TikTok over the weekend by an author who was ranked 87th (83rd? Somewhere in the 80's) on Amazon bestsellers and she dished that the number of books including pre-orders that she sold her first week to attain that rank: 650 copies.

Now maybe this is the rank on the annual or overall bestselling list where you would expect a recent release to rank poorly (in which case, awful journalism to pick a meaningless stat to manipulate the message - I don't care if we do happen to align politically, don't do that shit), but if that is the weekly list, those 8 reviews she got might be the total number of sales.

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 18 points 11 months ago

Yet, we're writing articles about it, posting about it, commenting on it. Exactly what this freak wants.

[–] Tedesche@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

Good. Now stop giving it free advertising by writing about it in your publication!

[–] thorbot@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

I'm impressed they were able to teach a monkey how to write at all

[–] tburkhol@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Just because she's the author, doesn't mean she wrote it.

Like "Trump's" Art of the Deal: when you're a celebrity, you can slap your name on any ghostwritten/AI-generated bullshit and get some sales. Guess MTG is not the celebrity she thinks she is.

[–] mephiska@fedia.io 10 points 11 months ago

I always figured these politician written books were just another way to funnel campaign money into their own pockets. Campaign or associated big donors & PACs buy thousands of copies of the books with campaign money.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] brothershamus@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago

zorak noises

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[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’d probably help if her loyalist supporters could read.

[–] morphballganon@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Buying books they don't read is par for the course for them.

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I heard it was a self published coloring book highlighting the various forms of VD this trollop collected while working the glory holes around DC.

[–] 15liam20@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sounds heavy on the brown.

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[–] Ozymati@lemmy.nz 12 points 11 months ago

It's almost as if her target audience for it don't read.

[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

She looks like a summer sausage.

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[–] Cylusthevirus@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago

In business I think we call that misunderstanding your core demographic.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm sure it will do great once it hits the dollar stores...

[–] smeenz@lemmy.nz 3 points 11 months ago

Depends how absorbent the pages are

[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Watch her pivot to blaming either being cancelled, or the Jews running the media, taking that line to her fans that have never bought a book in their lives.

[–] Binthinkin@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago

Nobody wants to launder money for her or ?

[–] Techmaster@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How do you even write a book when you have no idea what the inside of one even looks like? For all we know the inside of her book is hollowed out to hold a gun.

[–] TechyDad@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Step 1) Pay someone to write a book for you. Give them general notes about what you want in it, but they can come up with the details.

Step 2) Sell the book and (theoretically) get profits.

Optional Step 3) Pay your ghost writer. Hey, if you're following the Trump model, paying people for the work they do for you is optional.

[–] Plasma@lemmy.ml 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Less than a week after its release, Marjorie Taylor Greene's book isn't performing as well as that of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, according to data available on Amazon.

In the book, Greene said she speaks of January 6, 2021, gives "inside stories about the Swamp you won't hear anywhere else" and writes about "Jewish Space Lasers"—a reference to an antisemitic conspiracy theory she spread in 2021, when she said that the Rothschild banking family was behind an anti-Christmas plot.

On Amazon, the world's largest online bookstore, the MAGA Republican's memoir was ranking 9,735 among its best-selling books as of Monday, November 27.

Another reader joked that the book had nothing to do with Magic: The Gathering—an iconic game which shares the same initials as the Georgia congresswoman.

By comparison, a book by Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas titled: "Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America" was ranked six in the same category.

Cruz's book, which was released on November 7, is also currently faring better than Greene's in terms of reviews and has a 4.3 out of 5 star rating.


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