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Bwaa-haa-haaa!

Five authors have sued the parent company of Regnery Publishing, a Washington imprint of conservative books, charging that the company deprives its writers of royalties by selling their books at a steep discount to book clubs and other organizations owned by the same parent company.

Unfortunately, no major OMG! names are listed on the suit, luminaries like Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan presumably having figured out what side the bread is buttered on. Instead, the authors of books like “Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security” and “Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror” are claiming that Regnery’s trick of bulk buying their own books to get that precious NYT Bestseller sticker placed next to the Buy 3 get 1 Free sticker on the Border’s table-of-deals is shafting them out of thousands of dollars and hurting their ability to get published by a real publisher.

I dunno, maybe having your first book remaindered by the company that prints Ann Coulter’s mash notes to Joe McCarthy is what’s keeping them from being able to write real books.

The authors argue that because at least a quarter and as much as half of their book sales are diverted to nonretail channels, sales figures of their books on Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail sales but does not reflect sales through book clubs and other outlets used by Eagle, are artificially low. Publishers use these figures when determining future book deals, and the authors argue that actions by Eagle and Regnery have long-term effects on their careers.

If they can prove that 1/2 to 3/4 of their books are purchased at an actual store, I for one will be shocked and amazed. Maybe Dereliction of Duty guy has a point; the low price for his book at Amazon new and used is a respectable $8. Shadow War, however, can be bought for a penny; even Ann Coulter’s books are available for only a dollar or two apiece and you’d expect her to have some staying power. If these guys are claiming that every single person who got the books for free when they clicked something at WND or were given a copy at some church fund raiser would have paid retail if that was their only option, they’re about to find out how delusional they actually are.

h/t Amanda.