Report: Palin’s book sells 300,000 copies … on its first day

Hey, remember that story last week about how she’d have to sell a whopping 400,000 copies for HarperCollins to break even?

I think it’ll be okay.

There’s a rule of thumb in the industry that publishers net about $10 per hardcover sold, after expenses, but before the cost of the advance. Once she’s sold 700,000 copies, then, HarperCollins is in the black. And what of that 1.6 million printed? An ideal “sell-through” rate is about 75 percent, which means HarperCollins thinks it’s going to sell about 1.2 million copies. At that level, Palin will have made $7 million and HarperCollins $5 million of its own.

A HarperCollins insider told The Daily Beast that the book sold a staggering 300,000 copies on the first day alone, which was Tuesday. “Sales are phenomenal, and we are convinced that the book will continue to sell phenomenally for some time to come,” says the insider. They’re not prevaricating: As of 2:30pm today, the book was #1 on Amazon, ahead of both Stephen King’s new novel, Under the Dome, and Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. The latter sold 1 million copies on its first day, but that figure included the UK, and top fiction generally trumps non-fiction. Any way you carve it, Going Rogue looks to be a $12 million goldmine.

I’m a little suspicious that a relatively minor, Palin-hating outfit like the Daily Beast landed a scoop this big, but it’s probably legit. Their source sounds solid, and don’t forget that their founder has friends in very high places inside the publishing industry.

I’ve got no big finisher for this post so here’s the clip of her chat about faith with David Brody on CBN. The thought of how she and Huck will handle each other if they square off two years from now is downright dizzying. Exit question: The Daily Beast story contains a long rundown of all the people who are making money off her this week. Didn’t they forget someone?

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