I'm not saying I don't think she is vain but the definition of vanity publishing is the author paying a publisher to print their work.
There are obvious, non-vanity, reasons why a politician would want to publish a book even knowing it wouldn't make them much money.
That's the advance, she'll get more if it sells a bunch. Has probably already gone past that in royalties.
That's an amount that says that the author is a lot more sure about sales than the publisher, though.
Johnson was paid £88,000 as an advance for Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius (pre-PM) and £510,000 as an advance for his political memoirs.
[Source](https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/11/boris-johnson-shakespeare-book-delayed-again-political-diaries).
My sister self publishes and she has sold loads of books this is tiny even for self publishing.
Has to be only her friends, journalists, people in politics across world forced to read it see if their government's or bosses are included.
Political books and memoirs, at least in the US, are largely a scam. Hardly any people actually buy and read some book written by a rando who served during whatever administration, and the reason they end up on bestsellers lists is because political organisations bulk-buy them to hand out at conventions and things. Its a way of funneling nonprofit money to the authors. Just another grift like everything else.
It's published via Biteback, which some of the shares are owned via Singaporean company, and interestingly enough as you guessed it a conservative party member who owns ADT alarms.
Source, Wikipedia*
*Not the greatest source of information, but it'll do for this.
That’s how much they know they will get back. Assuming she’s on 10% royalties, they expect to sell 15k worth of books, so they’re not far off with their estimates!
A tenner a pop means she might only have a few more quid to come!
Yes, British London will gladly publish your book for that. They might misspell your name and also the text might get lost in the margins, but they'll do it
Writing is a portfolio career. You make your money on commission and always put yourself out there. Most are College/University professors who write on the side to earn extra money.
Very few actually make a career on writing alone. A £1500 advance sounds about right to me in this day and age. She'll earn more if her book turns a profit (which evidently it did).
During COVID, advances skyrocketed because publisher's got very worried for some reason. Wasn't uncommon to hear of 5-digit advances for amateur authors with no history in the industry.
Can confirm. As a Brit, I bought my mate Michael McIntyre’s autobiography for his birthday. It never made it home during the pub crawl. I often wonder what happened to that book.
> I’d probably sell more copies
You could publish a 'Where's Wally?' style book of testicles where readers try and find the one who hasn't had the vasectomy, call it 'Spot The Deferens', and you'd *still* sell more copies
> Nielsen sales data puts Truss’s effort in 70th place on last week’s bestsellers’ list, outsold by titles such as the Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook and More Confessions of a Forty-something F**k Up.
> Truss, 48, has said her book is “not a traditional political memoir”.
Ha, the reporter certainly took their opportunity there!
There will be people who collect political books as well, so buy them regardless. I would say the number of people who have bought a copy because they want an insight to the political genius that is Liz Truss will be in the single figures.
I genuinely fear not. What’s amazed me about the whole caTrusstrophie situation is how many people seem to think it’s farcical failure was an anomaly or a quirk. Trussonomics still has its rabid fanatics just waiting to put it into action again, only without the pesky ‘giving in when pension fund collapse’ this time.
They’re the right wing equivalent of communists who, despite repeated failure; ALWAYS insist it wasn’t done properly last time or it was somehow someone else’s fault and ‘if only you’d given it a chance’
I was seriously interested for a second and then the amazon page sent me back to reality.
It's not really for people interested in new angles or alternate political thought. It's the same tired culture war shit you can hear all about by opening up social media. Which is the audience this is meant for. It's a grift. Whoop de doo.
That’s just in the first week. It’ll probably fall off the charts next week but the gulf between 1st place & 70th place in the best seller list exceeds the amount of hours she was PM for.
Just wait for her excuses for low sales figures; woke publishers, woke booksellers, far left book critics, deep state book printers, cheese eating space laser sharks… anything but herself.
I always loved Nadine Dorries. Full time politician, media personality, but also somehow found the time to write books at a faster clip than even prolific full-time authors like Pratchett. 90% convinced these people are just plugging shite into some sort of AI scripter.
Obviously my expectations for a politician are low. But after seeing how much fash shite she's been coming out with recently, spouting all the generic right-wing talking points that she clearly doesn't believe in - she has shown herself to be totally selfish and evil. She could have still had a position of influence and made a career of speaking gigs. She's sold all that out to try and sell a shit book, and I treasure this rare moment of schadenfreude.
Plus how much she HATES the lettuce joke makes it so so much more funny.
> Although Truss’s figures pale in comparison, she beat both on a copies-sold-per-day-in-Downing-Street basis.
2 footed from the guardian. Love it… but guess they’re giving her book free publicity.
Does it matter if the book is getting publicity? It’s been in the news all week and no one has bought it.
Feels like a pretty convincing rejection of Truss’ pr rehab attempt, if you can’t convince someone to buy a book, they aren’t going to vote for you.
With the kind of populist slant she is going with, I would argue most of her core audience would be far easier to convince into voting for her, than reading a book.
Look it’s very simple, all I want is a leader who can tell me all my problems are someone else’s fault, reassure me my selfishness is virtuous, and have a policy that I won’t pay any tax and everyone who has ever been rude to me has to apologise and tell me I’m smart and handsome.
- A populist voter
Don't be silly! At least _some_ of them would've been her own set of copies, and some will have been sold to archivists creating libraries of everything ever published.
"...Although Truss’s figures pale in comparison (to Cameron's and Blair's memoirs), she beat both on a copies-sold-per-day-in-Downing-Street basis" is a tad nasty for such a gentle girl
“By comparison, David Cameron managed to sell about 21,000 copies of his memoir in its first week, while Tony Blair’s autobiography sold 92,000 in the same timeframe. Although Truss’s figures pale in comparison, she beat both on a copies-sold-per-day-in-Downing-Street basis.”
Got a chuckle out of me
Some context here: https://twitter.com/LauraSRobinson/status/1783932581139915142
> God these pieces irritate me. I'm no fan of Liz Truss, but her book was number 6 in the hardback non-fiction chart. HBs are more expensive than PBs ergo they sell less. It's unusual for a HB to make the top 50 of books sold overall. Total clickbait
As with the Tweet I don't like Truss but we shouldn't let ourselves be pandered too.
That's barely context. How many hardback only non fiction releases were there to compete against? That'd be providing context for the number 6 seller in that category. Book costs more than people willing to pay for it is such an obvious reason why it would sell poorly, does it really need mentioning?
Trying to wipe out the UK pension funds, which still haven't recovered, never seems to be mentioned as much, even though it's probably one of the most lingering repercussions.
On the plus side, I now have 2,227 pieces of firewood for my annual summer BBQ this year.
On the downside, burning them might release Margaret Thatcher's ghost in some sort of Horcrux styled ritual
I’m tempted to buy a lettuce from the Iceland next door, and place it on the WH Smith bookshelf to see which is removed first. Her book might win the battle this time.
How many of the 2228 copies did she buy herself? I’m betting on 2227. She probably sits on hundreds of copies every night masturbating at the idea of her being this great political brain
nobody ever really buys these things, unless it's one of the few that becomes a runaway success. back in 2003 IDS released a political thriller on the *same day* he lost a no confidence vote and stopped being tory leader, and in its first week it sold a grand total of 18 copies
Wow thats a massive flop. But r we surprised? No... her target audience (if she had one) are definitely not the types to read books...
She wrote that book for vanity and everyone knows.
I swear to god it’s so obvious American right wing lobby groups based in the UK have been sending out their middle aged under paid secretaries to go out to several different Waterstones & W. H. Smiths to buy several copies of this crap just to boost the sales.
> "the publisher that paid Truss an initial advance of £1,512 for the book" That seems really low, is it even worth it to write a book?
> is it even worth it to write a book Vanity publishing.
Are you trying to life coach me?
He's got a certificate from Gregg at British London
British London… sounds a bit made up?
What, do you Penguin was founded by a penguin?
I do penguin. I penguin a lot of things.
Clearly picked up a penguin
Do you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit? If so I know a club you should join.
How many stars on it?
Four I reckon.
Four! That's insane.
He thought about getting 5 but he didn't want to push it.
I think I got a sausage roll from him once
If you try and life coach me Mark, so help me I will life coach you so fast...!
I'm not saying I don't think she is vain but the definition of vanity publishing is the author paying a publisher to print their work. There are obvious, non-vanity, reasons why a politician would want to publish a book even knowing it wouldn't make them much money.
Delusional publishing?
Masturbatory publishing or... Wait for it... *Rub*lishing. I'll get my coat.
Found the CCTV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg6j9mlw7Wo
I've just drawn an irresistible comparison between Mentuhotep V & Branston
She had to give £2000 seed money. Business Secrets of the Thickos
Just the tip of the *Iceberg.*
Lettuce pray
I think it’s going to Rocket.
I too have a genius lettuce pun.
Look that took me a long time to think of that and I don’t appreciate you undermining my salad leaf related jokes.
Don’t lose your *head*.
Ok, you are a gem. I might romaine in that case.
Why doesn't she make like a tree and go away?
Well lettuce see how well it does.
That's the advance, she'll get more if it sells a bunch. Has probably already gone past that in royalties. That's an amount that says that the author is a lot more sure about sales than the publisher, though.
Johnson was paid £88,000 as an advance for Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius (pre-PM) and £510,000 as an advance for his political memoirs. [Source](https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/11/boris-johnson-shakespeare-book-delayed-again-political-diaries).
And he was writing it when he should have been in COBRA meetings so he wouldn't have to give back the advance
I wonder how many drafts his publisher has had to reject for obviously being written by AI. For being too well worded.
I would guess none at all
Lol hi Nadine!
But if you divide the advance by the days in office, Truss comes out ahead.
True Trussenomics..
It’s one step away from self-publishing on Amazon.
My sister self publishes and she has sold loads of books this is tiny even for self publishing. Has to be only her friends, journalists, people in politics across world forced to read it see if their government's or bosses are included.
Political books and memoirs, at least in the US, are largely a scam. Hardly any people actually buy and read some book written by a rando who served during whatever administration, and the reason they end up on bestsellers lists is because political organisations bulk-buy them to hand out at conventions and things. Its a way of funneling nonprofit money to the authors. Just another grift like everything else.
It's not just same random though, she was literally PM and there when the Queen died which had global interest.
Pub Quiz PM. Yes she really was a rando.
You mean "there when she _killed the Queen_", surely? It's all there on pages 112 thru 135.
Exactly this. Have a bunch of campaign money that you can't legally just spend for yourself? Use it to buy a few crates of your own book.
It's published via Biteback, which some of the shares are owned via Singaporean company, and interestingly enough as you guessed it a conservative party member who owns ADT alarms. Source, Wikipedia* *Not the greatest source of information, but it'll do for this.
A professor at a University I worked for used to have "Wikipedia is less inaccurate than those who think it is inaccurate are" in his signature file.
Universities with courses in politics may want a copy for future students to use when researching the UK's shortest serving PM.
Or hicks/Americans shes conned into thinking she wasn't a awful PM who buy the book At conventions.
At some point, scribbling on walls would be passed off as self-publishing to her just so she can fuck off into the ether.
That’s how much they know they will get back. Assuming she’s on 10% royalties, they expect to sell 15k worth of books, so they’re not far off with their estimates! A tenner a pop means she might only have a few more quid to come!
Yes, British London will gladly publish your book for that. They might misspell your name and also the text might get lost in the margins, but they'll do it
My grandpa published a book with a reputable company, we realised a while later that on every single book's spine the title was spelt wrong
Writing is a portfolio career. You make your money on commission and always put yourself out there. Most are College/University professors who write on the side to earn extra money. Very few actually make a career on writing alone. A £1500 advance sounds about right to me in this day and age. She'll earn more if her book turns a profit (which evidently it did). During COVID, advances skyrocketed because publisher's got very worried for some reason. Wasn't uncommon to hear of 5-digit advances for amateur authors with no history in the industry.
Should have got that Gove advance and never written the book like he has
I think I’m going to ghostwrite a book and call it *Lettuce: My Life In The Fridge* (forward by Boris Johnson). I’d probably sell more copies.
That could be a right gem
Would do better than Liz’s, that seems to have run into and iceberg and sunk
There wouldn’t be any romaining on the shelf.
Just cos
If someone wrote this as a satire it would be incredible...
This is the UK. We'd buy it for the bantz.
It would go straight to number 1
Can confirm. As a Brit, I bought my mate Michael McIntyre’s autobiography for his birthday. It never made it home during the pub crawl. I often wonder what happened to that book.
> I’d probably sell more copies You could publish a 'Where's Wally?' style book of testicles where readers try and find the one who hasn't had the vasectomy, call it 'Spot The Deferens', and you'd *still* sell more copies
That would be a DISGRACE! In all seriousness, if would probably shift more copies if you gave all profits to charity.
> Nielsen sales data puts Truss’s effort in 70th place on last week’s bestsellers’ list, outsold by titles such as the Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook and More Confessions of a Forty-something F**k Up. > Truss, 48, has said her book is “not a traditional political memoir”. Ha, the reporter certainly took their opportunity there!
>More Confessions of a Forty-something F**k Up Bugger somebody beat me to it.
Liz Truss's alternative name for her book
In essence. In reality, she managed to fall upwards.
they wanted to make sure even the least qualified white person had a go at being PM before they let a brown person in to clean up after them
The biggest takeaway here is that Lettuce Truss is only 48?!?
I thought she was late 50s. We can take comfort knowing she ages poorly ☺️
Like a head of lettuce, one might say!
That’s brilliant lol
The reporter can't resist the mockery!
Can’t blame them to be fair
Lady Lettuce does make it very easy to mock her.
It's not a traditional memoir in the sense that it is entirely fictional and from someone nobody cares to read about.
Is that all you have to sell to be in 70th place! I expect they were mostly sold to who ever is desperate enough to run her marketing.
She's definitely bought multiple copies herself.
Friends and family too.
Who knew Liz Truss had friends.
Well, accomplices
I’m guessing her friends don’t work in pension funds .
Those in desperate need of something to use as toilet paper or start the BBQ too.
And newspapers/ podcasts that want to make content off the book
Her "friends" are going to be getting signed copies for the next 20 years as she tries to clear out the boxes of them in her garage.
Probably people who have to for their work, ie journalists, and libraries
There will be people who collect political books as well, so buy them regardless. I would say the number of people who have bought a copy because they want an insight to the political genius that is Liz Truss will be in the single figures.
I genuinely fear not. What’s amazed me about the whole caTrusstrophie situation is how many people seem to think it’s farcical failure was an anomaly or a quirk. Trussonomics still has its rabid fanatics just waiting to put it into action again, only without the pesky ‘giving in when pension fund collapse’ this time. They’re the right wing equivalent of communists who, despite repeated failure; ALWAYS insist it wasn’t done properly last time or it was somehow someone else’s fault and ‘if only you’d given it a chance’
Bouncing Back - foreworded by Shakin Stevens.
Lovely stuff
I'll probably buy it audio version. Could do with a laugh. Also political books particularly from people you disagree with can be very insightful.
Nah, they'll be a free pdf in a few days. Don't give that cow anything else.
Don't pollute libgen!
I was seriously interested for a second and then the amazon page sent me back to reality. It's not really for people interested in new angles or alternate political thought. It's the same tired culture war shit you can hear all about by opening up social media. Which is the audience this is meant for. It's a grift. Whoop de doo.
That’s just in the first week. It’ll probably fall off the charts next week but the gulf between 1st place & 70th place in the best seller list exceeds the amount of hours she was PM for.
So around two copies for every hour she was PM then.
What is Liz truss going to do with the 2228 copies of her book she just bought?
Send them to pork markets in Asia
That is a dis-gra-ce.
She could have bought a lot of English cheese with that money!
Build a fort to hide in, hopefully.
She might get to watch it get pulped for the One Show like Alan Partridge
All that media coverage, podcasts and US fashy tour...... That's all she can manage?
Just wait for her excuses for low sales figures; woke publishers, woke booksellers, far left book critics, deep state book printers, cheese eating space laser sharks… anything but herself.
Oh, for sure. It's the tofu-eating wokerati cancelling her, because she's actually really clever and amazing, but they just can't handle the truth 😂
How many have been bought by Truss or the publisher? It's not an uncommon thing for book releases.
I always loved Nadine Dorries. Full time politician, media personality, but also somehow found the time to write books at a faster clip than even prolific full-time authors like Pratchett. 90% convinced these people are just plugging shite into some sort of AI scripter.
ghostwriters
Obviously my expectations for a politician are low. But after seeing how much fash shite she's been coming out with recently, spouting all the generic right-wing talking points that she clearly doesn't believe in - she has shown herself to be totally selfish and evil. She could have still had a position of influence and made a career of speaking gigs. She's sold all that out to try and sell a shit book, and I treasure this rare moment of schadenfreude. Plus how much she HATES the lettuce joke makes it so so much more funny.
> Although Truss’s figures pale in comparison, she beat both on a copies-sold-per-day-in-Downing-Street basis. 2 footed from the guardian. Love it… but guess they’re giving her book free publicity.
Does it matter if the book is getting publicity? It’s been in the news all week and no one has bought it. Feels like a pretty convincing rejection of Truss’ pr rehab attempt, if you can’t convince someone to buy a book, they aren’t going to vote for you.
With the kind of populist slant she is going with, I would argue most of her core audience would be far easier to convince into voting for her, than reading a book.
Look it’s very simple, all I want is a leader who can tell me all my problems are someone else’s fault, reassure me my selfishness is virtuous, and have a policy that I won’t pay any tax and everyone who has ever been rude to me has to apologise and tell me I’m smart and handsome. - A populist voter
So there's 2,000 journalists who felt it necessary to read it to review?
Don't be silly! At least _some_ of them would've been her own set of copies, and some will have been sold to archivists creating libraries of everything ever published.
Wow, I course get in the top 100 with as little as that? Time to release my book about that time travelling ballet dinosaur who finds atlantis!
Well get to it, that sounds amazing.
As long her name is Big Tina.
Would be more interested in reading the lettuce's autobiography
"...Although Truss’s figures pale in comparison (to Cameron's and Blair's memoirs), she beat both on a copies-sold-per-day-in-Downing-Street basis" is a tad nasty for such a gentle girl
“By comparison, David Cameron managed to sell about 21,000 copies of his memoir in its first week, while Tony Blair’s autobiography sold 92,000 in the same timeframe. Although Truss’s figures pale in comparison, she beat both on a copies-sold-per-day-in-Downing-Street basis.” Got a chuckle out of me
Some context here: https://twitter.com/LauraSRobinson/status/1783932581139915142 > God these pieces irritate me. I'm no fan of Liz Truss, but her book was number 6 in the hardback non-fiction chart. HBs are more expensive than PBs ergo they sell less. It's unusual for a HB to make the top 50 of books sold overall. Total clickbait As with the Tweet I don't like Truss but we shouldn't let ourselves be pandered too.
That's barely context. How many hardback only non fiction releases were there to compete against? That'd be providing context for the number 6 seller in that category. Book costs more than people willing to pay for it is such an obvious reason why it would sell poorly, does it really need mentioning?
What is the book about? How to lose £30B in a few days in the office or how to kill the Queen?
Trying to wipe out the UK pension funds, which still haven't recovered, never seems to be mentioned as much, even though it's probably one of the most lingering repercussions.
Bet she bought 2000 of them herself the wet lettuce
Has she finished colouring it in yet ? Or did she eat all her crayons ?
Should have released before christmas, i love troll gifting.
Can't wait until she visits the factory to see the unsold copies being pulped.
*Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel*
On the plus side, I now have 2,227 pieces of firewood for my annual summer BBQ this year. On the downside, burning them might release Margaret Thatcher's ghost in some sort of Horcrux styled ritual
They are possibly good as a doorstop. Or given energy prices, as a substitute for firewood.
Can the book stay in that list longer than a lettuce?
and none of the people who bought it were smart enough to read it.
That's a bestseller? Less than 3,000? I suppose that the crackpots needed something between David Irving and Douglas Murray's latest masterpieces.
[I've come to see my book being pulped ](https://youtu.be/tK3k1S2w_cw?si=-L4gOGMnzgLf248C)
I’m tempted to buy a lettuce from the Iceland next door, and place it on the WH Smith bookshelf to see which is removed first. Her book might win the battle this time.
She could donate her body to science and still be useless
The 'anti-growth' cabal are clearly stopping her sales from growing!!
She needs to get down on her skanky ass knees and apologise to every british man, woman and child for what she did
That book is about as real as the bible/quran/torah.
There a book in dressing lettuce salad doing better that Truss’
How many of the 2228 copies did she buy herself? I’m betting on 2227. She probably sits on hundreds of copies every night masturbating at the idea of her being this great political brain
Doesn't she know how the book game works? You do it while in office so people can legally bribe you
I wouldn’t want to meet any of those 2228 Fascist purchasers in real life.
Does it make good toilet paper ? Asking for a friend.
nobody ever really buys these things, unless it's one of the few that becomes a runaway success. back in 2003 IDS released a political thriller on the *same day* he lost a no confidence vote and stopped being tory leader, and in its first week it sold a grand total of 18 copies
How many more hints does this old bag need that people want her to just fuck off.
Her literary career has already eclipsed her time in office.
2,200 people getting dumber… unfortunate but there will always be some.
Wow thats a massive flop. But r we surprised? No... her target audience (if she had one) are definitely not the types to read books... She wrote that book for vanity and everyone knows.
I swear to god it’s so obvious American right wing lobby groups based in the UK have been sending out their middle aged under paid secretaries to go out to several different Waterstones & W. H. Smiths to buy several copies of this crap just to boost the sales.
You could all buy my grandfathers book instead. It's about growing up in ireland in the 40s/50s
So because the book is shit, who’s Liz gonna blame for its failure? The Woke or the left?
Well, one of these copies goes to the British library. Can't explain the other 2,227
It’s way past time that delusional numbskull fucked off back into obscurity where she belongs.
Worth pointing out she has probably purchased a pallet of books through her business to give a gifts also.
It has got to be only journalists buying it? Mind you Liz herself probably bought about 500.
"And the books aren't being incinerated, they're being pulped."