Now I've
already noted that Bookscan numbers paint an incomplete picture of book sales (and most notably for us, misses the 5,100 sales of the CTG special edition), but Drudge and his minions think those numbers are oh so relevant to determining the success of Crashing the Gate. Well, Patrick Nielsen Hayden
dug up Instapundit's numbers (note, this wasn't a pissing match started by Glenn Reynolds):
As of this morning, for Reynolds' An Army of Davids (February 2006), Bookscan reports 1716 retail sales and 2609 "discount" sales, for a total of 4325.
As of this morning, for Armstrong and Kos's Crashing the Gate (March 2006), Bookscan reports 2598 retail sales and 1804 "discount" sales, for a total of 4402.
In other words, despite the fact that it's been available for four fewer weeks, Kos and Armstrong's book has now clocked Bookscan sales in excess of Reynolds'. Notably, several hundred more full-price sales. This is leaving aside the fact that Kos and Armstrong's book is currently at #40 on Amazon, whereas Reynolds' is at #801.
And Glenn Greenwald got the numbers for Hugh Hewitt's book Painting the Map Red:
1712 - retail
931 - discount
2643 - total
This is one of the stupidest pissing matches I've ever been involved in, but the record needed to be set straight. And it's never a bad thing to remind people just how stupid conservative bloggers really are (and if you check out Nielsen Hayden's and Greenwald's posts on the matter, you'll see a lot of stupid conservative bloggers with egg on their faces).
It's really hilarious that the Right Wing has so little going for it that it is fervently hoping for CTG to tank. I mean, it's not like they have anything else going for them. Yet even those desperate wishes don't stand up well to reality.
But man, talk about opening up a new marketing avenue for the book: "Buy Crashing the Gate. Make a conservative cry." Think it might work?