Memoir numbers may not wash

According to AOL's Daily Finance, the reported monetary sums involved in former Gov. Palin's book contract with HarperCollins mean that to break even on the deal, the publisher will have to sell 400,000 units. HarperCollins has said that the first printing run will comprise 1.5 million, but Daily Finance notes that the industry's print-run numbers are "notoriously inflated" and that 750,000 is likely a more accurate figure. Right now, pre-orders of Palin's book are rumored to have surpassed 40,000, with more added every day, but no one knows for certain. Only brief mention was made of the recent hardcover price-war between major retailers, which saw the cover price of Palin's book slashed to $9.The analysis ends with caution for HarperCollins, which seems to have a lot of its overall success in today's suffering hardcover market riding on Palin's book. Read more here. Alaska Dispatch should mention that the terms of HarperCollins' contract with Palin have not been made public, beyond a $1.25 million retainer (which Palin reported in required Alaska financial disclosures) as part of a rumored $7 million total advance (which Harper hasn't commented on), so take the analysis with a teeny grain of salt.