"Going Rogue" - Outtake Cover Pictures

John Keatley was the photographer who took this picture for Sarah Palin's new book, "Going Rogue."

Now, here's some of the pictures that didn't make the cut:





The Photographer's story:

"This photoshoot only happened three weeks ago, so this is all still very new and exciting for me. After much planning and scheduling, I put together a crew and flew up to Alaska for six days to photograph the former governor. It was supposed to rain the entire week we were there, but we ended up getting blue skies and puffy white clouds the entire time. After a few days of scouting and prepping, I shot for three days straight. The last day we went to Hatcher Pass which holds a lot of meaning for Sarah. I had already scheduled the pass a few different times, and I knew exactly where we were going to shoot. Every last detail was in place. After shooting at the base of the pass near the river, we caravaned up to the top of the pass where we were planning to shoot the final location. Half way up, I noticed the beautiful light that was sweeping across the valley, and the clouds that were developing on the horizon. I told the driver to stop, we had to change our plans. This last minute change ended up being the final setup we would do with Sarah, and it also ended up being the cover image."

Hmmmm, three days of shooting. That must means there's a lot more pictures lying around somewhere.... Share, share, please share!

Time Magazine Wonders How Palin Wrote So Fast

A new article in Time Magazine is impressed with and confounded by Sarah Palin's speedy typing fingers. The implication, of course, is that Palin couldn't possibly have written most of it herself:

With a few weeks to go until the book hits shelves on Nov. 17, the biggest shocker so far is the sheer speed with which she wrote it. The former Alaska governor penned the 400-page tome in just four months, (See my Point #4 below to debunk this falsity) finishing well before the planned spring release date. So how the heck did she do it?

Palin's publisher says the answer is simple: hard work. "When she resigned as governor, she had a lot more time and was able to really devote herself full-time to writing the book," says Tina Andreadis, a spokesperson for HarperCollins. "That's really all that there is."

Well, there's also this: Palin had help. Editorial sidekicks are par for the course in political memoirs, though ghostwriters say many pols are heavily involved in the writing process. Palin's assist came from Lynn Vincent, a writer for the Christian news magazine WORLD, who has also co-authored several other books."

Time goes on to say that they have no idea how much of a hand Lynn Vincent had in writing the book, but the author of the article then goes on to just assume that Vincent pretty much wrote it herself.

I don't deny that Lynn had some hand in the process. She wouldn't have been called in if she wasn't going to play a role. For one thing, Sarah had never written a book before. She didn't know all of the details of the publishing industry and such; someone had to help her out with that. Also, book-writing is a little different than writing an article or a speech; it has its own art. I don't know what role Lynn played exactly, and it's not wrong for Lynn to play a role, but this article implies that Lynn pretty much wrote the entire thing herself. The book was essentially ghostwritten:

Palin, with her colorful family, devoted following and knack for inciting controversy at every turn, is a ghostwriter's dream....It also helps to have a subject who knows what message she wants to get across. Palin was apparently clear from the start about her book's mission: "It will be nice through an unfiltered forum to get to speak truthfully about who we are and what we stand for and what Alaska is all about....."

But having a clear message is no guarantee of speed, especially if it's a policy-heavy, labor-intensive one....Says ghostwriter Bill Harlow. "If it's more personality-driven, I think it's probably easier to finish in a shorter period of time." (Implication: The book is total fluff.)

The last potential time-sink is steeping the ghostwriter in the author's voice well enough that he or she can channel it convincingly. Palin's singular rhetorical style is a boon on that score as well. (Implication: Even if the book sounds like Palin wrote it, she didn't. That's just the ghostwriter sounding like Palin.)

In the end, how quickly the book gets finished depends largely on the ghostwriter's drive to grind it out.... Once the ghostwriter has finished writing, the task of rushing a book into print falls to the publisher. (Here's what the publisher had to say about Palin's involvement in the process.)

So, how did Palin write the book so fast? I have a few theories of my own:

1. She's got a lot to say and a lot of time now to say it.

2. She did graduate with a journalism degree. I think she can type pretty fast when it's warranted. She, in fact, mentioned her degree: The governor said she wants to do a lot of the writing herself, and that it will be her story and her words. "It will be nice to put my journalism degree to work on this and get to tell my story."

3. When the book deal was first announced, a good portion of the content was already written. It is a memoir, after all: Palin said she's kept journals throughout much of her life that she will use for the book. "My journaling really ramped up when I found out that I was pregnant with Trig and then Track was going off to war and I found out Bristol was pregnant," Palin said. "When we had those episodes in our lives come to the surface, it was very therapeutic for me."

4. While the book deal was announced in May, it's obvious that it was going on behind the scenes for months before that. An interview outside of the Governor's mansion in January showed Palin dismissing the $11 million dollar price tag, but not the idea of a book itself. She said that she would tell people when anything became solid (the deal was finalized). So Palin had more time than Time gives her credit for.

5. Palin went dark for many months and basically worked on the book non-stop to crank it out this fast. Good thing too. I get to read it sooner. :-)

We all knew this was coming. We knew that if the book was a success the theme would be that Palin didn't write it herself. And if it was horrible, she of course wrote every word. So very, very predictable. Pathetic, really.

Palin's Book Out Sooner than Expected

From the LA Times:

You Sarah Palin fans/haters who thought you had until next spring to buy and then read at least the first part of Sarah Palin's book need to change your plans. Pronto!

Grab your lawn chair and get down to the local bookstore immediately. The book is so delicious and revealing -- according to the publisher, who might just have a stake in ginning up excitement over this -- they are moving up the publication date.

"Going Rogue: An American Life" will now go on sale on Nov. 17. So everyone can get copies as Thanksgiving presents. Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham says the ex-governor obviously invested herself deeply -- and also quite quickly -- in penning the 400-page volume, and it contains "fascinating details."

Some of which, no doubt, will not be so fascinating to some within the failed campaign of Arizona Sen. John McCain, who picked her as the first GOP female on a presidential ticket in an obvious bid for the Arctic vote.

Many in the mainstream media will also be eager to see how the Republican hockey mom praises them for their objective portrayals of her -- and, indeed, her entire family -- all last fall.First stop on the book promotion tour, no doubt: CBS to chat with David L. and Katie C. Harper's says it's ordered a whopping advance printing of 1.5 million copies. But that still means that more than 300 million Americans will have to share copies.

Or perhaps they'll print more.

-- Andrew Malcolm

From the AP:

That was fast.

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, has finished her memoir just four months after the book deal was announced, and the release date has been moved up from the spring to Nov. 17, her publisher said.

"Governor Palin has been unbelievably conscientious and hands-on at every stage, investing herself deeply and passionately in this project," said Jonathan Burnham, publisher of Harper. "It's her words, her life, and it's all there in full and fascinating detail."

Palin's book, her first, will be 400 pages, said Burnham, who called the fall "the best possible time for a major book of this kind." The book now has a title, one fitting for a public figure known for the unexpected — "Going Rogue: An American Life."

Palin, 45, spent weeks in San Diego shortly after leaving office and worked on the manuscript with collaborator Lynn Vincent, a person close to her said. She was joined in San Diego by her family and her top aide, Meghan Stapleton, then spent several weeks in New York working around the clock with editors at Harper, said the person, who wasn't authorized to comment and asked not to be identified.

-- By HILLEL ITALIE

From Politico:

Sarah Palin’s publisher plans to announce Tuesday that the title of her eagerly awaited memoir will be “Going Rogue: An American Life.”

Publication is being moved up from spring to Nov. 17 in order to catch the holiday book-buying season. The former Alaska governor has been in huge demand as a speaker, and continues to harvest a bounty of media attention.

Palin had a deadline of Sept. 15 for her manuscript and turned it in a bit early. Copy-editing and fact-checking are now underway in a race to meet the crash publishing schedule, which has been accelerated four or five months because of the huge anticipated demand.

After Palin left office on July 26, she went with her husband, Todd, and her children to San Diego, the home of her collaborator, Lynn Vincent, and worked on the book for several weeks. Later, Palin spent several days in New York, going over the final edits.

Palin mischievously embraced the phrase “going rogue” at the end of her troubled campaign for vice president on the ticket headed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The phrase has its roots in an Oct. 20 story by Slate's John Dickerson, with the lead: "Has Sarah Palin "gone rogue"?"

-- Mike Allen


So, for all the doubters out there who were crying, "Where's Sarah Palin?" Now ya know.