Sarah Palin is trying to exploit my fame and fortune by getting Amazon to flog her book – signed editions no less – to all my fans. This is Amazon Algorithms Gone Mad.
Let me take a deep breath and step back for a moment. To remind you, I wrote the first critical book on Sarah Palin in 28 days and nights at the invitation of the publisher Harvard Perspectives Press. It is called Thanks But No Thanks: The Voter’s Guide to Sarah Palin.
While it was a best-seller among my senior fitness students, let’s just say I’m still wearing the same winter coat I was wearing then. Sigh. My book actually ranked Number One in its Kindle category long enough for us to get a good screen shot of the event. As the first book on the VP candidate that made it out (as both a paperback and an ebook) prior to the election, it must’ve made an impression on Amazon’s numbers.
My author friend Leslie Brunetta (Spider Silk) yesterday forwarded an email she received from Amazon telling her that if she liked Thanks But No Thanks, she was just gonna love the Palin book (I’ll skip title and link if you don’t mind) coming out later this month. Their first sentence reads:
We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Sue Katz have also purchased America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, Signed Edition by Sarah Palin.
This tells us two things: One, Leslie actually purchased my book. Two, algorithms are a lot more quantitative than they are qualitative.
Meanwhile, news broke yesterday that the kid who hacked into Palin’s email during her campaign has just received a year of time inside and three years of probation. His explanation?
[David] Kernell, a University of Tennessee economics student at the time, had targeted Palin, he wrote in comments online, because he’d hoped to find information that would help derail her campaign and prevent her from being elected.
It’s a shame that he didn’t realize at the time that I had it all under control. I knew my quickie book would prevent Palin and McCain from being elected. And so it did. If Kernell had kept up with the latest in Kindle books, he wouldn’t have had to take the risk that led to his incarceration.
I’d like to leave you with a complaint and a please. My complaint is that not only did Amazon recommend to my personal readers to try Palin’s tome, they also plastered the bottom of the page with suggestions for books by George W. Bush and Glenn Beck. If you are someone who tends to take my literary advice, don’t buy books by these clowns. Send your donation to the New Winter Coat Fund or save your pennies for my next book.
Whew! You must be incensed. Something to ponder on - perhaps all the clueless people who are actually buying her book will now also buy yours so they can read everything related to Sarah. You may soon get that winter coat after all!
I'm incensed because I am now subjected to hearing that voice for at least the next 2 years, and most likely beyond that. That voice...shivers up the spine and all that, never knowing when it's going to hit you!
Posted by: Anita | 13 November 2010 at 20:31
Anita, that voice is here to stay. She's already said that she's happy to run for President. Prepare yourself for a new songtrack to our lives.
Posted by: Sue Katz | 14 November 2010 at 08:57
Have you seen the trailers for her TV show on Alaska? It's hilarious! All these beautiful wilderness shots...Palin and the family being outdoorsy, communing with wild Alaska..
Palin (paraphrased):"Why can't we ever be content with this tranquility?"
Me:"Because you're screaming at the top of your shrill voice, disturbing whatever calm exists!"
Palin (paraphrased): "I'd much rather be out here than in some stuffy political office"
Me: "Please, lady, please, do us all a favor..."
And how come Oxford English Dictionary has added "refudiate" to the venerable English language? Bush's malapropisms became the fodder for countless jokes; she gets recognition. It just makes no gosh darn, grizzly mama, drill baby drill, sense!
Posted by: Gema Gray | 17 November 2010 at 12:29
I love when your comments are like a whole auxiliary blog, Gema. And I suspect all my other readers do too! Thanks for this welcome chuckle.
Posted by: Sue Katz | 17 November 2010 at 12:53
The question is, do you find her at all attractive? Apparently a lot of guys do. Straight guys, that is. I love you, Katz, and wrote this only to bug you.
Posted by: Allen Young | 18 November 2010 at 12:09
Allen, I'm speechless. (And wish she were too.)
Posted by: Sue Katz | 18 November 2010 at 14:15