Who’s confused by Palin parody?
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When we wrote that OR Books, publishers of the Sarah Palin parody ‘Going Rouge,’ might be hoping to confuse buyers looking for ‘Going Rogue’ with their evil-twin cover and typo-switcheroo title, we didn’t imagine that the media would be caught up in their ruse.
Today the New York Post reports that several media have mixed up the two books. USA Today posted an image of the cover of ‘Going Rouge’ to accompany its review of ‘Going Rogue’ on the Oval, correcting it later with the note, ‘Erratum: An earlier posting featured the photo of a different Sarah Palin book. The Oval regrets the error.’ Fox News also displayed the cover image of ‘Going Rouge’ while discussing Palin’s actual memoir. And CNN reported that Obama administration officials were sharing copies of ‘Going Rouge,’ when the book that had actual changed hands was the official ‘Going Rogue.’
To try to counter the confusion, someone -- possibly publisher HarperCollins -- has been purchasing Google ads that point to ‘Going Rogue: An American Life’ when people search for ‘Going Rouge,’ just in case they’re not looking for the satire but have mistyped the title. This, indie publisher OR Books told Page Six, ‘seems very unsporting.’
But maybe it’s just the media that have been confused by the doppleganger books. Palin fans have been able to find her memoir without a problem at Amazon (even if they can’t get it signed), where it remains atop the Amazon bestseller list.
-- Carolyn Kellogg