brianrayfiction.com Blog

Just weeks away, Sarah Palin’s memoir has already outperformed a lot of other books out there. Called Going Rogue, the book apparently describes Palin’s journey from politics to celebrity.

In a feat usually reserved for the likes of J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown, Palin’s book was No. 1 on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com just two days after Harper announced it had moved up the release date from the spring to Nov. 17 and that the memoir’s title was “Going Rogue.”

Palin’s 432-page memoir, still No. 1 on Friday, has been given a first printing of 1.5 million copies and booksellers have begun fighting for sales. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cut the $28.99 list price by more than half, to $13.50, and Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com are offering “Going Rogue” for $15.65, a 45 percent discount.

As my blog may have mentioned, I was tapped to join the team of ghost-writers for this project back in April. For promotional purposes, I’ve been asked to talk here about my experiences working for Palin and digesting her voice. Let me tell you. The editing process was hell. I’d write a chapter, the editor would send it back with a note saying, “Prose not circular enough.” One time I got a note saying, “Dam you, Ray. Be less clear. Less precise. I want more indirection! More circumlocution! More independent clauses masquerading as dependent ones! When you finish a sentence, I want you to have no idea what you just said!!”

This aspect of Palin’s voice gave me the most trouble. Even after I’d learned a great deal about Alaska and soaked up her sports metaphors, even after acquiring a host of colloquialisms, I struggled with the syntax. Finally the editor shot me an example from one of Palin’s speeches. Think he tweaked it a little:

My choice is to take a stand and effect change – not hit our heads against the wall and watch valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars, go down the drain in this new environment. Rather, we know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time, on another scale, and actually make a difference for our priorities – and so we will, for Alaskans and for Americans…Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me – sports… basketball, which I use it because you’re naïve if you don’t see the national full-court press picking away right now and because I think basketball is the way to bring our nation back together through its status as a national past time, about freedom, and democracy, and teamwork, because, you see, a good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I’m doing that – keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities – smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it’s time to pass the ball – for victory!

Of course, even before I began writing, our editor called us all to DC where we spent an entire week “getting to know Sarah.” Wish I could remember that week. I’m having memory blocks.

Now I sit here ponderous, neglecting other work. I wonder how many people who buy Palin’s book fall into the category of supporters, the category of critics, and the category of people planning to give it as a gag gift for Christmas. (I know one person on my list is taken care of.)