Or do bookstores only stock right wing books? The most “left” book I can find at this Books A Million is the latest from Bernie Sanders 🙃

  • synae[he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    70·
    4 months ago

    There’s a huge grift in right wing book media.

    They ghost write a book, buy it with campaign/superpac/donor/megachurch funds, and give them away at rallies, etc.

    This has 3 benefits: funnels money to the “author”, reinforces loyalty of those that get a free book, and makes them appear popular+legitimate by being a “new york times bestseller” (etc) which also gets them in more bookstores as you’ve described.

    • AndrzejEnglish
      16·
      4 months ago

      Yeah in the UK it’s how they pay state assets lol

        • AndrzejEnglish
          6·
          4 months ago

          I can’t really furnish you with a link, though I saw some pretty convincing breakdowns back when I was on Twitter. Long story short, nobody is actually buying e.g. James Ball’s books — they don’t even print nearly enough to cover what the author is paid. It’s similar to the columnist grift, which is definitely a thing in the US too