Actually, billionaires buy them by the truckload and then donate them to libraries, taking the tax deduction and allowing the publisher to recover the advances.
Noem's autobiography is a gift that keeps on giving, to the point where I wonder whether Noem's ghostwriter put in the most damning passages as a way of sabotaging Noem.
Of course, her being too lazy to even read her own "autobiography" also made this possible.
Right?! It had to be intentional. Maybe she fully trusted the person and they sold her out for whatever reason? I don't even know. But this is amateur hour stuff. It's not something that should happen to a seasoned politician. I watched that clip where she's asked about the meeting with Kim Jong Un and she's doing the politician two-step, saying a bunch of words that ultimately mean nothing, and never answering the question. It was so bad.
Evil I - they are ALL damaged goods - look at who is running the crap show in the DC cesspool - it is abysmal - it just depends on who the goons want in charge.
Axtually, I take it back. Noem didn't bother to read her ghostwritten autobiography because she didn't think *anyone* would bother to read it.
The point of publishing political books is to give the politician a payoff in the form of a fat and nonrecoupable advance. This is why so many political books get published, only to end up in the "for sale cheap" section or just pulped.
Of course, this was an amateur mistake on Noem's part, since Team D, the Front Row Kids political party, is going to do their homework and look for unforced errors.
This is so embarrassing! If it was me, even if I had no ethics and had a ghostwriter, I would insist on being fully involved in the process. I would have it in writing that I must approve EVERYTHING before it's released. And I'd be going over it with a fine toothed comb. Even I was a liar and had no problem claiming I wrote a book when I know I did not, I would never want to be caught off guard in an interview like she was and make a total fool of myself for the world to see! She's been a politician for a while. WHAT was she thinking?!
Observing noem my judgment is she's COGNITIVELY impaired. noem provers Gore's point: Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.
It would not surprise me if even the ghost writers might be outsourcing the work now: to LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and similar. The quote at the source of this controversy really, really sounds like something one of those would generate.
The falsehoods and exaggerations are bad enough and she should have owned up to them by telling the truth early on. But like too many politicians she showed poor judgement, lied and tried to spin the ugly pig she had created into a beautiful horse looking all the worse for it. Sad. I used to respect her but now see her for the joke she has become. This was her Dan Quayle moment. I suspect her political career is over.
Kern - Dan Quayle was in actuality - an amazing & somewhat smart person - the political cesspool that is DC & our horrendous meanstream Media hated him along with Hollyweird, Murphy Brown (Candace B). He was simply not able to rise above the putridness that Senator Lloyd Benson & DC company brought to the stage. Reagan was one of the few who with humor survived & thrived …for awhile. What an abysmal
mess. I am reminded that Scripture states, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”
No argument from me. I always liked Dan but was disappointed he did not come up with a rejoinder to Benson’s pompous, snide comment. His failure here effectively ruined his political future. Cristi’s apparent failure to proofread her ghost written biography and subsequent defense of same has likely killed her political future. Dan could have responded with “very funny, Lloyd but Jack never mentioned your friendship to me”.
Such an important & eye opening piece! I’m changing to paid subscriber & sharing.. Thank you. I’m hoping to be more impressed in the future. God bless..
You mean that Bill O'Reilly didn't really write all the "Killing....." books, Kilmeade didn't write "Washington's six," and Carley and Steve didn't write the Fox cookbooks? I'm crushed. Kristi deserves everything she lost over this, reading it aloud and not correcting the "misinformation?" Dumb*ss.
Noem (and many others) don’t always do this. Agreed Kristi deserves everything thrown her way for placing her name in book and not pre approving each & every word.
Writing (or having it written for you) a biography before age 60, is more a sign of an inflated ego and borderline or full-blown narcissist personality (not the mental illness per se, the personality), or at least quite severe ego-centrism. Noem is 52 according to the internet; and kudos to the make-up artist, lighting rigger and photgrapher who took the cover picture.
Calling hagiography biography is however older than a few decades: originally, it was the norm rather than the exception. Having an interesting life-story written for you and consigned to posterity dates back to Ancient Egypt, if not before that even.
The idea that a biography shold be written by the subject itself, honestly and truthfully, is so modern it barely got off the ground before being shot down.
It's not just politicians doing this, self help gurus, authors and others who get ghostwriters to do the writing as they're too busy. I attended a writing course at a big publishers and the author who was in to guest speak was proudly announcing that she had a ghostwriter do her books and she sells loads of them and teaches and everyone was clapping hands! Great stuff! A kid would say that's cheating, but that's just kids talk.
Yet, in ages past, politicians were often prolific, erudite and knowledgeable. Off I he top of my head I can name a few; Jefferson, Madison, Roosevelt, Churchill.
We could list these brilliant, gifted statesmen for hours. Today?, there are none; Shades and charlatans all. I don’t believe there is one pol deserving of anything but a prison cell or flop house bed.
Ross F - perhaps Ron Paul in his antiwar stance and there was one small, but shining star in my years in IL - a businessman by the name of Peter Fitzgerald. He was a breath of fresh air. I often wish he would have chosen to run for re-election, but only served one term (1999 - 2005). The rest is history.
Shocked I am! Shocked! Frauds and BS artists in politics? No way!
If one thinks about it....who but the intellectually lazy (in general) would seek elected office? If you're a good ass-kissers, suck-up you have a shot. Furthermore, we get the "leaders" we deserve. Our politicians reflect who we are as a people. Pathetic...no? Pax
Roger - I agree with most of your statement, but having lived in both NY & IL - I will have to disagree that we get the leaders we “deserve”. Politics is nasty & attracts some very bad characters. So to state that the hard-working, taxpaying, truly decent folks I have had the privilege to know in my life “deserve” the political choices served to us really is not fair or just. I will defer to Mark Twain & Will Rogers’ views on these political choices & their descriptions.
almost no one reads them. Everything in politics is fake, a bait and switch, three card monte and a scam. Optics and propaganda. I am glad Noem has been exposed for what they all are.
The other half of the secret is that nobody BUYS these books -- it's just a laundering scheme.
Sounds like the Obamas and Clinton's!
And Cuomo's covid book.....I remember seeing tons of books being 'reprocessed' back into paper. But he got paid well.......
SC - my one solace is that Cuomo will one day “pay” dearly - I don’t want that paycheck or “reward”. ;)
Actually, billionaires buy them by the truckload and then donate them to libraries, taking the tax deduction and allowing the publisher to recover the advances.
Exactly! The book is a pay off!
Bam! Exactly!!!
Noem's autobiography is a gift that keeps on giving, to the point where I wonder whether Noem's ghostwriter put in the most damning passages as a way of sabotaging Noem.
Of course, her being too lazy to even read her own "autobiography" also made this possible.
Right?! It had to be intentional. Maybe she fully trusted the person and they sold her out for whatever reason? I don't even know. But this is amateur hour stuff. It's not something that should happen to a seasoned politician. I watched that clip where she's asked about the meeting with Kim Jong Un and she's doing the politician two-step, saying a bunch of words that ultimately mean nothing, and never answering the question. It was so bad.
Just further evidence, if any were needed, that she is not ready for the Big Time.
I can’t think of a single politician that’s ready for the Big Time. If they were, they wouldn’t need such huge staffs making their decisions for them.
Sarah Palin: "[I read] Um, all of them ... ."
Absolutely.
Not ready for the big time. She's damaged goods. Never will be.
Evil I - they are ALL damaged goods - look at who is running the crap show in the DC cesspool - it is abysmal - it just depends on who the goons want in charge.
Axtually, I take it back. Noem didn't bother to read her ghostwritten autobiography because she didn't think *anyone* would bother to read it.
The point of publishing political books is to give the politician a payoff in the form of a fat and nonrecoupable advance. This is why so many political books get published, only to end up in the "for sale cheap" section or just pulped.
Of course, this was an amateur mistake on Noem's part, since Team D, the Front Row Kids political party, is going to do their homework and look for unforced errors.
Dumb dumb dumb.
It's pretty great, I've been enjoying the absolute dumpster fire the whole thing has been.
This is so embarrassing! If it was me, even if I had no ethics and had a ghostwriter, I would insist on being fully involved in the process. I would have it in writing that I must approve EVERYTHING before it's released. And I'd be going over it with a fine toothed comb. Even I was a liar and had no problem claiming I wrote a book when I know I did not, I would never want to be caught off guard in an interview like she was and make a total fool of myself for the world to see! She's been a politician for a while. WHAT was she thinking?!
Observing noem my judgment is she's COGNITIVELY impaired. noem provers Gore's point: Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.
Gore Vidal
I'm sure she had the right to approve everything. She was presumably too lazy to bother to actually read whatever the ghostwriter ghostwrote.
I write my own books.
And Substack articles. ZERO AI.
I can tell it is fantastic work!
That is so sweet of you! Thank you! 🙏 ❤️
It would not surprise me if even the ghost writers might be outsourcing the work now: to LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and similar. The quote at the source of this controversy really, really sounds like something one of those would generate.
The falsehoods and exaggerations are bad enough and she should have owned up to them by telling the truth early on. But like too many politicians she showed poor judgement, lied and tried to spin the ugly pig she had created into a beautiful horse looking all the worse for it. Sad. I used to respect her but now see her for the joke she has become. This was her Dan Quayle moment. I suspect her political career is over.
So much better now than before she made it to the "Big Time"!
Kern - Dan Quayle was in actuality - an amazing & somewhat smart person - the political cesspool that is DC & our horrendous meanstream Media hated him along with Hollyweird, Murphy Brown (Candace B). He was simply not able to rise above the putridness that Senator Lloyd Benson & DC company brought to the stage. Reagan was one of the few who with humor survived & thrived …for awhile. What an abysmal
mess. I am reminded that Scripture states, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”
No argument from me. I always liked Dan but was disappointed he did not come up with a rejoinder to Benson’s pompous, snide comment. His failure here effectively ruined his political future. Cristi’s apparent failure to proofread her ghost written biography and subsequent defense of same has likely killed her political future. Dan could have responded with “very funny, Lloyd but Jack never mentioned your friendship to me”.
Yes, agreed! Thx!
Such an important & eye opening piece! I’m changing to paid subscriber & sharing.. Thank you. I’m hoping to be more impressed in the future. God bless..
So much appreciate that!
You mean that Bill O'Reilly didn't really write all the "Killing....." books, Kilmeade didn't write "Washington's six," and Carley and Steve didn't write the Fox cookbooks? I'm crushed. Kristi deserves everything she lost over this, reading it aloud and not correcting the "misinformation?" Dumb*ss.
I believe every Bill O’ Reilly book says on the cover ‘& Martin Dugard’ so we know who helped (or did) the writing.
https://us.macmillan.com/series/billoreillyskillingseries
Noem (and many others) don’t always do this. Agreed Kristi deserves everything thrown her way for placing her name in book and not pre approving each & every word.
Writing (or having it written for you) a biography before age 60, is more a sign of an inflated ego and borderline or full-blown narcissist personality (not the mental illness per se, the personality), or at least quite severe ego-centrism. Noem is 52 according to the internet; and kudos to the make-up artist, lighting rigger and photgrapher who took the cover picture.
Calling hagiography biography is however older than a few decades: originally, it was the norm rather than the exception. Having an interesting life-story written for you and consigned to posterity dates back to Ancient Egypt, if not before that even.
The idea that a biography shold be written by the subject itself, honestly and truthfully, is so modern it barely got off the ground before being shot down.
It's not just politicians doing this, self help gurus, authors and others who get ghostwriters to do the writing as they're too busy. I attended a writing course at a big publishers and the author who was in to guest speak was proudly announcing that she had a ghostwriter do her books and she sells loads of them and teaches and everyone was clapping hands! Great stuff! A kid would say that's cheating, but that's just kids talk.
Automated money for no work. That's what they want. Thanks for the insight
And you too! Thank you for this piece.
Very talented ghostwriter(s) behind this work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_from_My_Father
Worth every (taxpayer) dollar for the Cabal's investment, wouldn't you say?
Freedom Fox - YES!
How about the people who put out 5-6 post/day on Substack? Their hands must be tired from all that writing or is it AI that is writing for them?
AI is becoming a huge problem in the space too. Worth addressing
Jordan S - AI is going to be a huge problem in so many ways - what have the creators of that done?
I never use AI and 100% write my own Substack and other articles, including my books and the pinned Guidebook to Covid Care.
Or their staff?
Yet, in ages past, politicians were often prolific, erudite and knowledgeable. Off I he top of my head I can name a few; Jefferson, Madison, Roosevelt, Churchill.
We could list these brilliant, gifted statesmen for hours. Today?, there are none; Shades and charlatans all. I don’t believe there is one pol deserving of anything but a prison cell or flop house bed.
Ross F - perhaps Ron Paul in his antiwar stance and there was one small, but shining star in my years in IL - a businessman by the name of Peter Fitzgerald. He was a breath of fresh air. I often wish he would have chosen to run for re-election, but only served one term (1999 - 2005). The rest is history.
https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2024/05/05/now-that-noem-knows-whats-in-her-own-book-she-should-tell-us-how-it-got-there/
“That leaves two explanations: She lied, or she’s incompetent. When those are the only answers, it’s no wonder she avoids the question.”
Shocked I am! Shocked! Frauds and BS artists in politics? No way!
If one thinks about it....who but the intellectually lazy (in general) would seek elected office? If you're a good ass-kissers, suck-up you have a shot. Furthermore, we get the "leaders" we deserve. Our politicians reflect who we are as a people. Pathetic...no? Pax
Roger - I agree with most of your statement, but having lived in both NY & IL - I will have to disagree that we get the leaders we “deserve”. Politics is nasty & attracts some very bad characters. So to state that the hard-working, taxpaying, truly decent folks I have had the privilege to know in my life “deserve” the political choices served to us really is not fair or just. I will defer to Mark Twain & Will Rogers’ views on these political choices & their descriptions.
Who reads these books anyhow?!?!
A great question. Jordan, can you do a followup post on this? Who buys these things, no one I've ever met?
almost no one reads them. Everything in politics is fake, a bait and switch, three card monte and a scam. Optics and propaganda. I am glad Noem has been exposed for what they all are.