Boots on the Ground – Going Rouge Coloring Book is Too Dang Controversial!
GUEST POST BY MICHAEL STINSON
[You can buy the Going Rogue Coloring Book HERE, and support both the authors AND Mudflats!]
We’d like to thank Mudflats for the opportunity to send along some info about the “other” Going Rouge – Our “Going Rouge: The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring & Activity Book” we created that’s been a phenomenal success, garnering features in media like The Washington Post, AP, The Guardian, and many others – Entertainment Tonight used the cover as a teaser three times just last week!
Mudflats noticed my tweet the other day and invited me to blog about how an (unnamed) chain bookstore felt too intimidated by Sarah Palin to allow us to hold a book signing there. Sounds nutty? It is. Here’s what went down.
My lovely wife, co-author and illustrator and I decided that it would be fun to offer a counter-balance to Sarah Palin’s mulch book tour – show up at bookstores in the same town and the same day as Sarah and autograph our book, gather some of that press up and catapult our message.
We’re longtime activists, and I lived in Alaska for 12 years, even crashed in ANWR in a helicopter (prospecting for Uranium 18 hours a day by chopper for the Dept of Energy for two years) and was lost for a week in the bush. I witnessed the building of the pipeline from Fairbanks, and worked in the fishing industry in the Aleutian Islands, so I know a bit about Alaska and Energy, myself. Julie’s been an editorial artist for the Arizona Republic, and others, designed and published many books. A member of the National Cartoonists Society to boot.
So, here’s the skinny. We called the local chain bookstore outlet, offered to do a signing while Sarah would be “YouBetcha-ing” at another corporate chain across town. The manager, a young guy, was totally into it, said it would move a LOT of books, and be a lot of FUN. “This is the kind of thing that sells really well in the holiday season, a stocking stuffer, you’ll move tons of them here!”
But he had to check with management, specifically the marketing team at headquarters. I gave my wife a thumbs up from the phone, looked like we were going to rock that town, get a lot of good video footage to stick up in the Going Rouge site, maybe head on over afterward and get Sarah to sign one of OUR books, naturally, we’d do the same for her.
A few hours later the manager called back, feeling sheepish, and for good reason. He’d talked to the marketing geniuses and they’d emphatically refused, on the grounds that it would be “too polarizing”! (Sounds very Alaskan that word, eh?) I felt bad for the guy. It wasn’t like we didn’t have other offers to share a town with Sarah Palin, the indy bookstores in other towns had already invited us. Controversy? Us?
Still, he tried to rationalize it, though I could tell he didn’t like the decision, so I took it easy on him. He went on about how his outlet probably wasn’t the right mix, lotta older people, and they catered to children. The very morning we’d wanted to do our signing there was to be a big Dr. Seuss gig with lots of kids in the store, and that would be right before we rolled in.
I countered, “Uh, excuse me, but you DO sell HER book in your store, am I correct?”
I tried to give him an out, but still leave a mark, saying, “Well.. we wouldn’t want a buncha TeaBaggers in your store SCREAMING at children, would we? But what you are saying is that the bookstore chain is SCARED of Sarah Palin? That SHE is Not Polarizing? Boy, I bet our social media pals would love to spread this around.” He blanched at that, he was obviously more hep to the power of social media, unlike the clowns at marketing.
And I couldn’t resist adding, “Dude. It’s a COLORING book.”
Ouch. Gutted him like Sarah would a Rogue moose.
In the end, I befriended him, it’s not his fault that our book at that moment was being censored by proxy, by a corporation. A book that attained Best Seller status on both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble in categories from Humor to Political Biographies. One that is being distributed to bookstores across the nation (and Alaska) by Baker & Taylor.
A little scary, isn’t it?
But we soldier on, still laughing about that poor corporate sap – and it helps that folks are buying scads of these, by the handfuls, some returning to http://www.goingrouge.net to buy 10 at a whack. We suppose they must be coloring in one and saving the rest to sell on Ebay as a collectible, or as Christmas gifts. Like Sarah’s book, which we are saving, stuck under a short leg of our couch.
One thing we we’d like people to know about our book, just to be clear – is that Sarah didn’t write this one either.
We’ll be sending some signed copies to Mudflats for spreading the love – maybe she can offer them up for donations to help her run her wonderful site, one we can’t live without!
Meanwhile, we’re planning to catch up to Sarah at some point here, maybe cruise her line of folks holding up a copy of our book and filming the reactions. What will make that all the more fun is that my wife does a mean Sarah Palin impersonation!
And now we take the fight to the corporations, as we did when we started Takebackthemedia online in 2000, and rocked the political attack ad scene with my animations, one of which won a Hollywood award.
Wish us luck, and grab a few copies, while supporting Mudflats!
[You can buy the Going Rogue Coloring Book HERE, and support both the authors AND Mudflats!]
Micheal Stinson Co-Author (with Julie Sigwart, Illustrator) of “Going Rouge: The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring & Activity Book”
Just ordered 4 of them to give out to wingnuts I know just to torture them, especially the ones that think Scarah is smart.
Thanks
Too funny! Sad that the corporate types are afraid of a liar, cheat and–oh wait. She falls right into their own category. Feel sorry for the manager, though, to have to work for such types. Maybe he should be trying to move on to an indie, eh?
Tee Hee ! Now that’s funny. Thanks.
So guy behind a curtain said no?
You need to give us the name of the store and the person in the organization, so we can email him and complain.
i got your book the other day and am still bummed over not getting the DU’er autograph! maybe i better get another one – one for the cedar chest, and one to play with. so happy for you guys. (barbtries on DU)
It’s like she is The Mob. It’s very obvious that many in Alaska are afraid of her and now booksellers fear her? Gawd, she is mean.
Great post. It’s too bad the manager had to do his job and check with marketing. That would have been great.
But nice try, anyway. And even when there isn’t a book signing, now you have all the negative publicity because you weren’t allowed to do it. Maybe the marketing folks will think twice the next time they say no to someone.
I’m definitely off to get me several of those.
Hey, Sauer! Here’s a great ‘back-at’cha’ gift for all those right-wing jokesters in your family!
One of the best reasons to keep track of Sarah is that the types of big money people she will bond with and to are the ones who act like her.
Hang in there, it sounds like your sales are doing well other wise and that is the best medicine, for your bank account and for getting the “other” points of view out into the public.
If it wouldn’t earn me a big sack of coal and some switchin’ sticks, I’d dearly LOVE to put one of these in the stocking of my Ga. Aunt who thinks Sarah is God’s gift to the nation!
OT, but a great new quotation from Papa Palin on Huffingtonpost!
How can I buy them wholesale?
Yo, SYMBOLMAN! Imagine seeing you here.
I hope you and DemoBabe got my order for two at your website. I can’t wait to receive my copy.
I will order this coloring/activity book. Hope the authors get a lot of attention at the Indy Bookstores. – I ordered Going Rouge two weeks ago, paperback version, and it still hasn’t arrived. Anyone have experience on how long it takes for shipping to AK?
Please name names. I buy a lot of books and have my choice of where to spend my money, so I would very much like to know where NOT to spend my money.
Thank you for the laugh. I will definitely be ordering some.
Is this a chain bookstore? If so, I’m certainly boycotting them! What a travesty.
How deliciously funny! Thank you so much…picking out crayons…
9 MonaLisa IS FIRED UP, READY TO GO! Says: December 6th, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Hey, Sauer! Here’s a great ‘back-at’cha’ gift for all those right-wing jokesters in your family!
———
Hahahahahaa!
I just went over to the Barnes & Nobles store to see what they had… and it’s just the ghost written thing – which appears not to be moving too fast. I asked the guy at the help desk if he could locate Rouge or the coloring book for me in the store, but his answer was “by special order only” as he eyed me suspiciously. I’ll try a Borders tomorrow.
No worries about the family. Only the new hampstah branch has wingnuts, and they give me religiously some heavily discounted volume piece of trash (last year got “Do-Gooders” that had a $1.00 tag on it). I hope that if the hampsters give me Palin’s book that they will have to pay the full $29 price. Everyone else will find it discounted. And that’s only because I’m a bit of a political junky.
I am putting the comic book on my wish list, however.
Well… found the book on buzzflash, but when I tried to get to the order page to see the particulars, it came up as “sorry but the page you requested is no longer available.” bahumbug.
Neat book..better and more enjoyable then hers….
Get this though…Does this mean Sarah is a racist????
You can read about it on huffpo…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/06/palins-father-she-left-ha_n_381724.html
Awesome. To bad they wouldn’t allow the book signing. Looking forward to pictures of any line crusing with the Palin worshippers. Love the S’LAY cap! Very appropriate!
One of the main things that has me personally peeved about the whole “Going Rogue” thing (aside from false authorship) is the opportunity Palin passed over to champion the independent bookseller.
The overwhelming, vast majority of outlets that she is signing at over this tour are corporate chains. They literally make it their business to crush small, local booksellers, and are part of the cancerous homogenization destroying communities everywhere. With their self-serving, distorted business model of devaluing titles in a race to the bottom, the worth of actually earning a living writing or publishing books is consequently suffering, save for the relative handful of megasellers.
So much for supporting the American dream.
@Jamie Smith–
Yes, and in EVERY interview, she says the way to create jobs is to cut taxes on SMALL businesses, because that’s where most of the jobs are created. So what does she do? Take her tour to mostly (only?) large chain stores.
Of course, that’s typical $arah hypocrisy…because in the end, it’s only HER bottom line that matters.
Saw this yesterday on facebook and am still laughing…
“Going Rouge” the coloring book has been and is still proudly available on BuzzFlash.com at http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/1873 . We’re not sure why the commenter above had a problem with purchasing it, but we’ve sold tons to those who know the true reading level of Ms. Palin, a coloring book. It’s a great Holiday gift of joy, and as Julie Sigwart and Michael Stinson, its creators and BuzzFlash friends note: it’s got pictures too!
Note: you need to provide the crayons.
Mark Karlin
Editor and Publisher
BuzzFlash.com