Constitutional Law

Launching a "book bomb" for Steve Halbrook

Steve has just brought out his latest book, "The Founders? Second Amendment." It's getting great reviews -- National Review calls it highly readable and interesting, "Every American who cares about this provision of the Constitution can now arm himself against the sophistries and oversimplifications that have permeated much of the popular and professional discourse..." The distinguished historian Forrest McDonald says it's "first-rate work, utterly convincing."

So here's the plan. Monday, Dec. 15, is Bill of Rights Day. We can launch a "book bomb" on that day. A book bomb consists of lots of people ordering a book on the same day or within a few days. Amazon, for example, has a ranking system which (while details are secret) ... well, it's something like this: a book's rankings on Day X are very heavily influenced by the number of orders received the day before X, influences by orders within, say, 3 days before X, and orders on days 4-10 before day X get only a modest role. The idea is to let Amazon readers know what book is hot right now, not what book was hot two weeks ago. New York Times rankings are somewhat longer-term, and based on reports of sales from mostly brick-and-mortar stores (the identity of the stores surveyed is kept secret).

The long and short of it is that even a modest surge of orders, if concentrated in time, can greatly shoot up a book's Amazon rankings and even its NYT rank.

So on Monday, Bill of Rights day, let's see if we can shoot Steve's book to the front, which will mean exposing it to people who aren't yet 2A devotees, but might be brought in.

Here's the webpage where you can order via Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, etc.. You can enter a pledge (there are already 188 as I type) and be redirected to the online seller that will do the most good. But remember to hold off until Monday!

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on December 13, 2008 (boomark / email).