The Clean Industrial Revolution

Conservative ideologue commentator Andrew Bolt took a swipe at The Clean Industrial Revolution in his Friday column in the Herald Sun (http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_the_book_you_nearly_didnt_read/).

In praising oil geologist, Ian Plimers non-peer-reviewed bible for climate-deniers, “Heaven and Earth”, Bolt claims it has been a blockbuster:

‘It today gets its fourth reprint in little over a fortnight, bringing to 25,000 the number of copies now sold or ordered.’

Then Bolt points out how The Clean Industrial Revolution has sold:

‘Here, for instance, is Allen & Unwin’s latest title on the topic: The Clean Industrial Revolution, praised by the Rudd Government’s global warming guru, Ross Garnaut, as “a passionate and informative demonstration of how mitigating climate change can be compatible with economic growth”. Heard of it?’

Normally I wouldn’t respond to such non-sense particularly given there are no sales numbers for The Clean Industrial Revolution since it was launched on May 4.  But  after a little digging on book sales, people need to know where Bolt gets his sales numbers from because currently they dont seem to make sense.

Indeed, if a non-fiction book has 25 000 copies sold in Australia it is a massive blockbuster. I was suspicious when reading through the SMH book section the last couple of weeks and ‘Heaven and Earth’ not being listed in their top-seller list for non-fiction.  Being a little more rigorous, Bookscan, which track book sales in Australia doesn’t list it in the top 10 for non-fiction for the month as of the time of this blog entry . Seem a little odd to you?

Further investigation by a publisher friend of mine who is registered to track book sales through Bookscan reveals a big discrepancy between known sales and what Bolt quotes.  According to Bookscan there were 3242 total sales for ‘Heaven and Earth’ up until Friday, May 1.  That’s sales in all the major booksellers like Dymocks, Angus & Robertson, etc across Australia.

According to my publisher friend, add about 10-15% on that number to capture the sales from book-sellers not part of Bookscan (smaller book chains, university co-ops etc).   So the total sales of ‘Heaven and Earth’ book is probably about ~3700. 

The question for Andrew Bolt is :  Where do you get 25,000 copies sold or on order? Given there have been about 3700 sold until May 1, Maybe Andrew has ordered 20,000 copies himself to make it 25 000? I just don’t know? Maybe he can answer that for us?  

Last night was Sydney’s book launch which was fun.  About 130 people (invitation only) came to a swishy advertising agency board room for drinks, nibblies, to hear John Hewson and celebrate the launch of the book.  Video to come of the night – thanks to all who helped out! It was a wonderful night.