Sunday, February 24, 2013

UPDATE: Jersey Jazzman: Is Rhee's Book a Flop?

Jersey Jazzman: Is Rhee's Book a Flop?:


Is Rhee's Book a Flop?

I know nothing about the book publishing business, so maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a book like Michelle Rhee's Radical needs months to build up buzz and become a best-seller. Maybe her autobiography is a sleeper and will catch fire after a few more weeks.

But right now, Radical looks like a flop.

According to Amazon.com, Radical was released on February 5, 2013, almost three weeks ago. In that time, Rhee has been on what must be any author's dream book tour: The Daily ShowThis WeekCharlie Roseand many other outlets. She's been treated very gently, despite the cheating scandal that surrounds her and hermediocre record running Washington, D. C.'s schools. Given the extent of her book tour and it's fawning nature, you would think that Radical would be flying off of the shelves.

And yet Rhee's book has not cracked the New York Times Best Sellers List. And Amazon, as of today, putsRadical here:


Radical isn't even the number one book under "Educator Biographies and Memoirs." How many books can 


COMING SOON

Jeb Bush's Shill: What Conflict of Interest?

Mike Thomas used to be a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, where he regularly showered former Florida governor Jeb Bush with praise. Now Thomas works for Bush's reformy outlet, the Foundation for Educational Excellence, where he is paid to tut-tut at people for saying things they never actual said.

(How come no one on our side is offering jobs like this? I can misread blog posts with the best of them!)

But Thomas's blog looks like it's going to be about more than just smearing Bush's opponents; it's also going to produce spin when Bush gets caught up in conflicts of interest:

Recently a group called In the Public Interest made numerous allegations against the