Topic category:  Other/General

A poster at KC Johnson's Durham-in-Wonderland blog asked the right question about the infuriating unavailability of copies of Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case: "Is it possible to tell if it's a California problem, a publisher problem, or a B&N problem? (They're the only game in town.)"

It's a publisher problem, and a B&N problem, and more.

This book selling fiasco is another perfect storm: publisher incompetence, authors who were not into promotion when they wrote and whose political views are not conservative, major media embarrassment, leftist bias, slighted conservatives like Sean Hannity, competition from much lesser books already promoted and printed, post-Labor Day news competition, passage of time.

How bad is it?

See this post:

"With regard to... local availability of Until Proven Innocent:

In the Phoenix AZ metro area there appears to be a distribution problem with Barnes & Noble. Of the 15 stores only 1 store has [the] book in stock....

Also in the Phoenix metro area availability at Borders is somewhat limited. Of the 14 Borders stores, 4 have [the] book in stock."

The situation is intolerable, of course, so I emailed LieStoppers, as follows:

"I have a job for LieStoppers.

"I don't know whether you know anything about it yet, but the marketing of Until Proven Innocent has proven to be a disaster that needs mitigating.

"The Book's fantastic and the promotion is lacking.

"How many copies do think were initially printed?

"100,000?

"50,000?

"25,000?

"No. 13,000.

"How much effort do you think a book publisher puts into promoting a book when 13,000 copies have been printed?

"Not nearly enough, to put it mildly.

"This is Stuart Taylor's first book. He's America's best legal commentator, but he is a babe in the woods on book promotion (albeit a fabulous interviewee when given the chance).

"A few words here and there would have helped promotion greatly, but obviously the authors were into reporting instead of promoting and the editor was, at best, asleep.

"KC did a few books before, but this is his first 'popular' book.

"They guys need some help and it won't be coming from the extreme political correctness crowd or the feminuts or the black racists.

"I posted my review [of Until Proven Innocentand stand by it. Thinking people don't agree on absolutely everything, but it's obvious this is THE book on the Duke case and superb.

"Stuart acknowledged on a Colorado radio show that more credit should have been given to Sean Hannity and omitting [bloggers] La Shawn Barber and Mike (Crystal Mess) McCusker were mistakes.

"He was right to acknowledge it.

"Still, the slighting of some conservatives, inadvertently, is NOT a good reason for conservatives not to promote the book.

"To her credit, La Shawn plugged it enthusiastically on her blog. But Hannity has found other things to do (although maybe in a couple of weeks he'll find some time). Alas, Sean is no LA SHAWN! Make it 'Barber & Colmes' and 'Barber's America' if Sean boycotts Until Proven Innocent.

"Fox News seems to be boycotting the book. On Friday, I saw Wicked Witch Wendy Murphy plugging HER book and talking about Nifong on the John Gibson show.

"No promotion of Until Proven Innocent on Fox Cable is absurd!

"Tucker the first night is all from MSNBC. Dan Abrams, invite them on and take your bows!!!

"NBC found time for KC on Today in NY on Saturday, but nothing nationally during the week.

"CBS, of course not.

"CNN, not to my knowledge.

"ABC: Good Morning America on the release date with both Stuart and KC, but that's it and both of them were ABC consultants on the Duke case.

"COURT TV. Yes, an interview of Stuart the first day.

"Bill (Morning in America) Bennett gave Stuart an hour on his radio show last week and Laura Ingraham had Stuart on [her national radio show] on release date. Good for them!

"But there were not enough copies printed and Barnes & Noble and Borders didn't order many.

"Barnes & Noble bought lots of copies of the Pressler/Yaeger book. There is a report that Barnes & Noble and some other big seller (maybe Borders) had told Simon & Schuster they would double their order if the book were out in June. This gave those chains an incentive to promote that book instead of Until Proven Innocent and to buy very few of Until Proven Innocent--even, perhaps, to sabotage Until Proven Innocent in every way they legally could.

"The worst part of it may be that these chains continue to have an incentive to bury Until Proven Innocent despite the good reviews (well, Cash Michaels didn't like it, but I answered him).

"WHY?

"Supporting Until Proven Innocent would (1) be an admission that they have been wrong so far; (2) make it harder to unload their remaining Yaeger-Pressler books; and (3) make them no money as long as they could not get many more copies of Until Proven Innocent even if they wanted to.

"Didn't someone say LieStoppers was 'an amazing performance of journalism on the fly?'

"Right, that was Stuart Taylor.

"An amazing performance on behalf of Until Proven Innocent is needed NOW!

"It's time for LieStoppers to fly again!

"A Baldo cartoon!

"A Joan Foster poem.

"A blistering expose.

"A message board message.

"Do you feel inspired yet?

"Best, Mike"

This is important! (I think even LieStoppers posters JenniferM and Duke 84 are with me on this.)

GOOD NEWS!: "Baldo" quickly emailed back, "We will get Busy!"

Walter Abbott: "If KC wants to put the REAL squeeze on the publisher, he should within the next few days be a guest on Rush's shown and Sean Hannity's show. And he should mention how the publisher has fallen short. That will push the demand even higher. Rush will push his book just to spite the publisher. He knows how they operate."

Fine with me.

Please let television and radio shows you want to see/hear Stuart and/or KC.

Please tell Barnes & Noble and Borders that you won't be buying anything there until, to Stuart and KC, they make amends and be fair.

Please tell St. Martin's Press that their marketing efforts on behalf of Until Proven Innocent not only did not impress, but caused great distress.

(If that doesn't work, I'll unleash...CRYSTAL MESS! Or beseech Kevin Finnerty to buy St. Martin's Press and the bookstore chains and straighten them out!)

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.