Jerome gives
his pitch for
Crashing the Gate:
If you like what we've been blogging about on Daily Kos and MyDD over the past 4 years, I know you'll enjoy reading Crashing the Gate. When we formulated the proposal for this book at the beginning of this year, we wrote a sort of historical chapter from this decade and the rise of the outsiders or reformers within the Democratic Party. That wound up being Chapter 5, Civil War, the story of CFR, Dean, and the rise of the netroots, placed within the context of the Democratic Party. Every other chapter takes it's footing from the blog world as well, but that was probably the easiest chapter to write, because most of it was from our experience, and didn't require a lot of interviews. We let the DNC winter meeting and the California Democratic convention of 2003 take the center stage for the presentation of Dean. I think those two speeches (and Dean never gave that speech again) epitomized the call to action that Dean for America represented to millions. And for us, being the first political event that gave credentials to bloggers, it was a breaking out moment for the blogosphere.
For this book, Markos and I traveled all over the country, moving beyond blogging and into research. It seemed about every week, from May through the end of November, we were off to one state or another, for interviewing, writing, or somehow working on the book. There were a couple of times where we were like, `what the hell are we writing about?' But we kept going, kept compiling, and kept on pushing through with getting what we wanted to say into print.
And here it is, nearly done. The copy editors are fact-checking our digs and scrutinizing our grammar (pity them). Markos keeps emailing me about book tours and interviews (who knows where the time will come). And I'm at the point where a week of internet/email/work blackout has become imperative. But, before that, I wanted to put a note/pitch/post about the book.
If you can pre-order a copy of Crashing the Gate, I'd appreciate it. You'll get it a week before it comes out publicly, with the exclusive "Progressive Partner" book cover. You'll help us get th books message out faster and further. But besides all that and more, I guarantee you, whenever Markos or I are asked to sig a book and see that it's a Partner book, you'll get a personal 'thank you' as well.
Actually, you'll get the book two weeks before it's out in book stores. The special edition is an all-progressive organizations operation -- from writing to publishing to fulfillment. And, the money earned by the pre-sales will help fund the marketing of the regular edition of the book. We passed on a traditional big corp publisher in order to sign with a progressive independent publisher which uses sustainable printing practices (recycled paper, soy-based inks, etc). The flip of that is that we have to get creative in marketing the book, since the big bucks just aren't there to do it the traditional way.
Among other things, the presales will allow us to do a HUGE book tour, with at least 30 cities in our preliminary schedule (no specifics yet, it's all still being worked out).
The presales will help the book debut on the Best Seller list -- easy to do if you're a wingnut and can count on bulk purchases to get you on the list, not so easy if you're a progressive and need real people to buy they book.
And the presales are already generating a great deal of media attention, which will further help make this the influential book we hope it becomes. The more successful the presale efforts, the better media attention and access we'll have.
Jerome tailored his pitch for his readers -- focusing on the blog side of things. But the big theme of the book is a progressive movement that has failed to keep up with the times. From the issue groups, to the consultants, to the party establishment, Democrats and progressives still operate as if it was still the 70s or 80s. Conservatives, on the other hand, aren't afraid to innovate, improvise, and adapt to the changing political and media landscapes.
The results are self-evident. We sit here waiting for the Republicans to self-destruct in order to garner electoral gains in 2006. And short-term, it will be the GOP's utter inability to govern that will be our saving grace. But we can't build a long-term healthy movement on the hopes that Republicans screw things up. We want people to vote for Democrats because they believe we have a positive agenda for America, rather than vote against Republicans.
That will require building a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy -- think tanks, training institutions, and the media machine -- to counter the VRWC. It will require a progressive movement that works in concert for the movement's common good, rather than continue segregating in its issue silos. And it will require a consultant class that realizes it's 2006 and not 1984.
The irony is that in the political realm, conservatives have never feared change. They have embraced it. Progressives, on the other hand, cling to the past beyond all reason.