Going Rogue: An American Life (2009) is a personal and political memoir by politician Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican candidate for U.S. Vice President on the ticket with Senator John McCain. She wrote it with Lynn Vincent.
The book became a New York Times #1 bestseller in its first week of release, and remained there for six weeks. Shortly after its release, it was one of four political memoirs published since the 1990s to sell more than two million copies.
Writing process
The book deal was announced in May 2009 when Palin was still Governor of Alaska. She said that she wanted the public to hear her true story, "unrestrained and unfiltered". She reportedly received an advance of $1.25 million from publisher HarperCollins, with two projected additional payouts of between $2.5 million and $5 million each.
Palin announced that although she would have a ghostwriter to help, she would be doing a lot of the writing herself, employing her journalism skills and the personal diaries and notes that she had kept throughout her life. Critics questioned whether Palin could write a book.
Responding to concerns that writing and promoting the book would interfere with her duties as governor, Palin said she would only work on the book after hours and would promote the book "schedule permitting". The Alaska law department issued a legal opinion which okayed the project, stating: "A book publication project is compatible with your position as governor so long as it does not interfere with your official duties".
Conservative journalist and author Lynn Vincent worked on the book with Palin for several weeks shortly after she resigned the governorship in the summer of 2009. Palin met with HarperCollins editors for intensive editing sessions in New York City. HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham said that Palin had been "unbelievably conscientious and hands-on at every stage", adding that the book was "her words, her life ... in full and fascinating detail". HarperCollins had planned publication for spring 2010, but later moved the date to November 17, 2009, as the book was completed earlier than expected. The publisher attributed completion of the memoir early to Palin's devoting full-time to the writing process after she left office. A paperback version of the book, with new material, released on August 24, 2010.
Summary and themes
The first part of the book is devoted to Palin's life before the 2008 campaign; the second part details her life as a candidate for national office. The book is written in a personal tone similar to Palin's manner of speaking. Palin discusses the disagreements she had with campaign advisers of her running mate John McCain, criticizes the national media, and talks about the importance of religion and family life.
The "Going Rogue" part of the title refers to criticism leveled at Palin by McCain campaign advisers that she was straying from their carefully crafted message and publicly disagreeing with McCain on several issues. The subtitle, "An American Life", mirrors the title of President Ronald Reagan's 1990 autobiography.
Palin ends the book by quoting her own father saying, "Sarah's not retreating, she's reloading.", suggesting she would return to public life.
Commercial and critical reception
The book was available for pre-order between $9 and $10 during a price war among online retailers Amazon, Target.com, and Walmart.com. Dan Calabrese, writing in the North Star National, called the sales "an absolutely unprecedented performance for a non-fiction book so far in advance of its release date".
Less than two weeks after its release, sales of the book exceeded the one million mark, putting it in a class with memoirs by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The print run was extended to 2.8 million copies from 1.5 million. Going Rogue attained sales of over 2.7 million by December 1, 2009, and was number one on The New York Times Best Seller list for six consecutive weeks. As of January 21, 2010, it was #4 on the New York Times best seller list after 9 weeks in the Top 10.
According to campaign records, late in 2009, Palin used $63,000 of donations from SarahPAC, her political action committee, to purchase copies of her book, "Going Rogue". The expenditures were listed as, "books for fundraising donor fulfillment". Meghan Stapleton, Palin's spokeswoman, stated the purchased books were autographed and awarded to donors contributing more than $100 to Palin's PAC.