Michael Pompeo, former U.S. secretary of state, throughout the FAMiLY Leader summit in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., on Friday, July 16, 2021. (Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg through Getty Images)
Mike Pompeo’s new memoir may not be flying off the bookshelves—however bulk orders from his political motion committee on the day that it was launched seem to have propelled it onto the New York Times bestseller listing, anyhow.
Champion American Values, a PAC selling the previous secretary of state and probably Republican presidential candidate, spent $42,000 on the majority orders of the guide on the day it was printed, according to a Monday filing with the Federal Election Commission. The buy was first reported by Forbes.
That was sufficient to get “Never Give An Inch: Fighting for the America I Love” on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestsellers listing. It debuted at #3 and at the moment sits at #5.
It’s not clear from the submitting what number of books the PAC purchased, nevertheless it’s retailing for $20.04 on Amazon. At that worth, the PAC might have bought roughly 2100 copies.
Pompeo’s memoir launch is a component of what seems to be just like the beginnings of a probably presidential marketing campaign. Pompeo has polled between 1 p.c and 5 p.c in current nationwide surveys of the probably GOP presidential discipline; his outdated boss, former President Donald Trump, has been within the lead with between 30 and 50 p.c; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the one different candidate who’s polling near Trump, and the one different one cracking double digits.
The guide isn’t precisely burning up different best-seller charts. It isn’t on Amazon’s prime 100 bestselling books listing, and sits at a respectable however unremarkable #21 on Amazon’s greatest sellers amongst politics and social sciences books. (For comparability, Bernie Sanders’ new guide, which got here out this week, is #2 on that listing.)
The PAC’s transfer to juice guide gross sales is authorized, since Pompeo just isn’t a declared candidate. And it’s a comparatively frequent follow for politicians. Some PACs purchase books to allow them to give them away in alternate for bigger donations or to assist unfold a candidate’s message, a completely above-board political technique, whereas others merely assist politicians assist enhance guide gross sales. It’s unclear which is occurring right here.
The former technique is commonplace in Trumpworld: In 2016, Trump’s marketing campaign spent $55,000 on his guide “Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again,” a transfer that will have damaged marketing campaign finance regulation as a result of he was a declared candidate on the time. One of Trump’s PACs spent $158,000 on books simply weeks after Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner launched his personal guide late final 12 months, and the Republican National Committee spent $300,000 on Donald Trump Jr.’s guide in 2020, serving to put it on the bestseller lists.
Other Republicans have made comparable strikes. The National Republican Congressional Committee dropped $400,000 on bulk purchases of Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s 2021 memoir, serving to it obtain best-seller standing, and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s PAC spent more than $150,000 on his guide in 2020. In 2009, Sarah Palin’s PAC spent $63,000 on copies of her guide.
This isn’t the primary time that Pompeo’s PAC has helped him promote his guide. The PAC paid for a glossy ad in a booklet given out on the Iowa GOP’s legislative breakfast in early January.
That advert featured a pull quote from Pompeo himself. “My new book reads like a thriller with stories from my heart,” Pompeo declared.
And the PAC is spending cash on Facebook advertisements to advertise the guide—utilizing his spot on the Times bestseller listing as a cause to purchase the memoir. “Even the New York Times admits that my new book is a must-read!” Pompeo says in a Facebook ad paid for by the PAC.
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