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© SOTT.netA recent picture taken at a Barnes & Noble store (one of the largest bookstore chains in the U.S.). Notice that the top shelf of the bookcase is filled with books about "2012," face out. Inquiring minds want to know!
The 'Dissemination of Truth' - where would we be without it? It's one thing to discover and then find ways to clearly articulate the Truths about humanity's current condition in some written form. It's another thing altogether to find the means to share or disseminate these Truths in a quantitatively significant way; in a way that reaches ever greater numbers of people who may be asking for knowledge of those Truths. For once again, and much to our chagrin - but not to our surprise - the editors of this site have come smack dab against the invisible lines of force blocking us from sharing what we have learned with an ever-widening public who wants to see what is.

As regular readers of the SOTT page know, the Rabbit Hole goes down very far indeed. In addition to the many Focus articles and Special Features we present here, our editors also publish books and make them available for purchase in the QFG wing of our sites. Not only do book sales help us to finance our activities, but there are some ideas that can only be adequately communicated in their full depth and breadth in the format of a book.

And so the books that are linked to SOTT are mostly penned by Laura Knight-Jadczyk whose profound insights have brought us: Secret History of The World, The Wave Series, and High Strangeness, among others. She has written these and other books in collaboration with a team of crack researchers. The group that publishes the books, Red Pill Press, has also published Political Ponerology - the hugely important life's work of the clinical psychologist, Andrew M. Lobaczewski; world class historian, C. Scott Littleton's timely memoir, 2500 Strand, and Fulcanelli, His True Identity Revealed, by alchemist Patrick Riviere. Pretty good, eh?

With a growing international readership, the folks at Red Pill Press realized that not only were its books valued and viable among a niche group of open-minded people, but that it was finding a steady foothold in markets that catered to general audiences too. In other words, there is a significant general demand for the types of books that RPP publishes!

A plan of action was needed.

The next step in reaching a larger audience was clear. RPP needed to find a book distributor that could help meet this need, and that would ultimately be a powerful means to help meet the objective. Due to its size and reach, Ingram is acknowledged by most publishers and bookstores as the place to have your books listed. You might even say that Ingram is the U.S. Postal Service of the book distribution world!

Applying to be distributed (and by extension, marketed) by Ingram required that they know all about Red Pill Press - including it's past efforts to get the books sold. So, off to work RPP went filling out the Ingram application; listing all the publications it ever advertised in, listing the names of the smaller distributors RPP worked with (who had limited ability to reach stores in large numbers), collating gross sales from several countries around the world, and adding several other facts and figures. All this information was gathered and shipped to Ingram along with a copy of the ten titles that were among our most popular and relevant.

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© Ingram Book CompanyIngram is acknowledged by most publishers and bookstores as the place to have books listed. And yet, they would not list the RPP books due to a "lack of sales data" from Nielsen Book Ratings.
This was fine by us. Physically seeing the books would have to be one of their biggest selling points. If anyone has ever picked up and read a book published by RPP, they cannot but be impressed by the scholarship and quality of writing and editing that goes into them. They are after all conceived to make some truly mind-blowing revelations about our reality accessible to the general reader. And then there are the covers to the books - which are all designed with quite a lot of artistic and editorial input. And it shows. These book covers are attractive and compelling to look at. Indeed, an industry insider or two have said as much. Have a look here in case you haven't seen them.

Ingram said they would notify Red Pill Press in "four to six weeks' time" as to whether or not the books would get the support they required to help reach people who had never heard of them.

Here's what happened: Four weeks passed.

Then five.

Then six.

Then seven.

And Ingram still didn't respond, not even with a rejection letter. So a call was made on a Friday and a message was left for the individual in charge of signing on new publishers. The following Monday a call was returned by an associate of the person to whom the message was sent. We'll call him Jeff. And Jeff gave the news, "Ingram will not be distributing Red Pill Press, but there are other distributors that can," Jeff explained, "distribute your books through us."

But why? "What was the reason for not distributing the books directly?"

"Well," said Jeff, "the committee that approves the books... had seen the titles... and they decided that they would not be distributing them".

"But, what were the reasons?" "What was their criteria?" asked our rep. Reasonable questions, right?

"Well," Jeff paused, "there wasn't enough information given through the Nielsen Book Rating organization for us to accept the books. You know Nielson TV ratings - they rate the sales of books too."

So they wouldn't distribute the books because it wasn't already showing enough sales through some kind of book sale tracking system that came from Nielsen? That seems to be what he was saying, though who knows what the real reason is. This prompted our RPP representative to ask, "isn't that like a catch-22?" The whole point of going to Ingram in the first place is to increase sales. But no answer would be given to that question. And none was needed. Of course it was a catch-22, and much more besides, as we would discover.

"Oh, by the way, was there any reason we weren't contacted with the answer to our application earlier?" the RPP rep queried.

"The application was processed incorrectly", was the answer.

Or perhaps it was processed correctly, depending on one's point of view...

The RPP rep ended the exchange by thanking Jeff for the call back and requested that something be sent in writing clarifying what was said by phone. Jeff agreed, sending this letter:
Dear ********,

Thank you for contacting Ingram Book Group. Your material was reviewed and per the recommendation of our evaluating committee, we are declining a direct purchasing relationship. While at this time, we are unable to establish a direct relationship with your organization, there are other alternatives available for publishers that do provide access to Ingram and the clients we serve.

Ingram offers a full suite of services for publishers including digital housing and representation of content, book printing and book marketing services. A full list of our service offerings can be found under the 'Products & Services' menu on our website:

http://www.ingramcontent.com/default.aspx

For print inquiries, Lightning Source is the print on demand book manufacturing arm of Ingram. For those Lightning Source clients that opt to use the distribution services offered by Lightning, title information is displayed to our customers, and books are available for order through Ingram Book Company. Attached is an overview of Lightning Source.

If you are interested in reaching Ingram's customers for your printed book product, opportunities are available through many different full service fulfillment and distribution service providers. Contact information for these companies can be found on our website here:

http://www.ingrambook.com/publishers/distributors.aspx

Each company listed has a relationship with Ingram. Once you have established an agreement with a distributor, they will contact Ingram with all pertinent information. Your product will then be added to our database and purchase orders will be placed through the distributor as demand warrants. This will ensure that your product will be available to all customers that Ingram represents. Your consideration is appreciated and we wish you luck in your endeavors.

Best regards,

Supplier Relations
Ingram Book Company
You might have noticed that there was no mention of the lack of sales data from Nielsen Book Ratings. The same rating system that seems to have been what Ingram hinged their decision on. The only real information given merely suggests that Red Pill Press could go to Ingram's print-on-demand subsidiary, or work with Ingram through another distributor. One wonders why? Might they not, specifically, suggest some ways that Red Pill Press could, in the future, get good sales ratings? Could it be that they didn't want to get pinned down on this one point? And could it be that Nielsen Bookscan (as it's called) functions as a kind of "pass interference" for getting any truly worthwhile books out to a greater audience and slants its "data analysis" towards a certain type of book? The writer of the following article seems to think so:
Nielsen Book Ratings - More Holes Than Swiss Cheese

In the publishing industry the reputation of an author is largely defined by the sales numbers he achieves. These numbers are calculated by a popular point-of-sale software tool called BookScan, supposedly installed in all the leading retail bookshops across United States and the world. On records, this software claims to track about 70% of the book sales made by an author. These totals are used by publishers for reaching acquisition decisions. Bad BookScan numbers normally mean a tarnished reputation and problems with next sale--and if an author thinks he could just use an alias after being battered by this software, or join hands with a new agent or publisher, he needs to think again as all of them use BookScan.

But is Bookscan accurate? The truth is, NO. Irrespective of the quality of the book, it may die a quick death due to flawed tools like Bookscan and other Nielsen Book Rating practices that have nothing to do with what's between the covers. To emphasize the incompetence of Nielsen Book Ratings lets look at the hard facts!

Nielsen Bookscan Totals Do Not Include Sales From Walmart And Other Large National Stores:

Bookscan doesn't track sales from numerous big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and CVS (one of the biggest national drugstore chain). So if an author is placed (for his book) in one of these locations, those numbers will be eluded from his BookScan total, giving an incomplete picture.

Apart from this, the biggest pharmacy chain in New York, Duane Reade is also not a part of Nielsen's US Consumer Market Panel. Non inclusion of Duane Reade, which is reputed to sell a hefty amount of books annually, affects an author's ranking drastically.

Moreover, if you look at just the bookstore sales, BookScan does not tell the whole story. In fact, numerous authors have discovered a major discrepancy between their actual royalty statements and the BookScan numbers.

Books Purchased By Institutes Are Not Tracked:

Books purchased by Schools and academic institutions are also not tracked by Bookscan, further limiting its approach.

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© Getty ImagesThe Wall Street Journal building in New York City. Dow Jones & Company, a publication house, features Nielsen ratings in the Journal.
The Wall Street Journal Issue:

Ironically, Dow Jones & Company, a large publication house, features Nielsen ratings in one of its leading selling publications - The Wall Street Journal. Hence, good authors may suffer, because a large consumer base considers the Wall Street Journal as an accurate measure of quality.

Bookscan Really Only Tracks The Hardcover Sales Well

It is a fact that Bookscan is only good at tracking the hardcover sales well.

Bookscan Is Biased

Nielsen Bookscan is extremely biased and has an unethical approach to recording book sales. While the company preaches the fact that it automatically disqualifies the "bulk sales" of authors as part of their overall sales in the business book industry, It very shrewdly gives liberties to certain conservative book writers, such as Sarah Palin, and Bill O'Rielly, by including their bulk sales in measuring their overall sales. Why this prejudice? Because Nielsen holds an agreement with the Wall Street Journal and has a vested interest in obliging them.

Nielsen's biased and hypocritical approach leaves the authors demanding for a 'level playing field' so that they can be judged on the same grounds irrespective of the domain they write about.

Overall, Bookscan is an awful tool for acquiring editors to utilize in reaching decisions of acquisition. Instead, it's better to ask the author's agent for the statements. It is extremely important for the publishers to restrict the information they use from Bookscan, since noticeably it does not offer anything minutely close to the full picture.

Unfortunately, Bookscan is costing writers deals and dipping into their advances. Therefore, it is time for the Authors' Guild to intrude and demand for a better report from Nielsen. It should force the company to convince Wal-Mart to take part in Bookscan.

All in all, if Bookscan will keep holding such huge weight-age for publishing industries, it should concern the AG, who should ensure that the interest of an author is not being negatively predisposed by its existence.
Interesting, eh? So following the chain of reasoning that our narrative presents here, Red Pill Press will not be directly distributed and marketed by the largest and most effective distribution service in the USA (and probably the world), because Ingram relies (or says it relies) on Nielsen Bookscan; a deeply biased book sale tracking company that is supported by (or in bed with) the Wall Street Journal. As the article mentions, The Wall Street Journal is owned by the publishing house of Dow Jones & Company which, as it happens, is a subsidiary of News Corporation - that's right - News Corporation, the behemoth media company owned by none other than Mr. Fox news himself, Rupert Murdoch. No wonder Nielsen Bookscan gives a helping hand to the partial and unbalanced Bill O'Reilly and the reigning queen of the eschaton, Sarah Palin! It's sucking at the teat of the largest, most destructive media company this side of the Milkyway!

And that's just on one level.

On another level, it seems that all of the people who run these companies - who make policy, call the shots, and decide the executive decisions - are motivated and influenced by the same kind of "thinking". And it's not just profits we're talking about here. It's the type of "thinking" that seeks to manipulate mass perception of reality. Sometimes with the type of books and news it propagates, other times by the way it filters out anything worthy or truthful simply because it doesn't meet a set of arbitrary rules that, when held up to the light of day, burn up and drift away like so many ashes in a warm summer wind.

As evidenced by the connections we can see here - and the companies we are looking at that all seem to fall into lockstep with one another - it's as though they are all guided by other people in even greater positions of influence or by "principles" that all serve a single end. Or perhaps both. It's reminiscent of what the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion had to say regarding control of the media:
From Protocol No. 12:

6. Let us turn again to the Future of the Printing Press. Every one desirous of being a publisher, librarian, or printer, will be obliged to provide himself with the diploma instituted therefore, which, in case of any fault, will be immediately impounded. With such measures the instrument of thought will become an educative means on the hands of our government, which will no longer allow the mass of the nation to be led astray in by-ways and fantasies about the blessings of progress. Is there any one of us who does not know that these phantom blessings are the direct roads to foolish imaginings which give birth to anarchical relations of men among themselves and towards authority, because progress, or rather the idea of progress, has introduced the conception of every kind of emancipation, but has failed to establish its limits...

All the so-called liberals are anarchists, if not in fact, at any rate in thought. Every one of them in hunting after phantoms of freedom, and falling exclusively into license, that is, into the anarchy of protest for the sake of protest....


Comment: Exactly what we hear on the news today about anyone promoting any social responsible policy.


and this also applies directly:

8. Literature and journalism are two of the most important educative forces, and therefore our government will become proprietor of the majority of the journals.


Comment: Given the media's enormous power to help choose who our elected leaders are, they have effectively become a part of the government.


This will neutralize the injurious influence of the privately-owned press and will put us in possession of a tremendous influence upon the public mind .... If we give permits for ten journals, we shall ourselves found thirty, and so on in the same proportion. This, however, must in no wise be suspected by the public. For which reason all journals published by us will be of the most opposite, in appearance, tendencies and opinions, thereby creating confidence in us and bringing over to us quite unsuspicious opponents, who will thus fall into our trap and be rendered harmless.
The people who follow the essence of these 'protocols', who wield the power and have the intent to implement them - have one thing in common - and it's not that they are Jewish, although some of them may be. It is that they have a pathological addiction to power over other people. A psychopathic need to exert influence and control where an otherwise objective and creative view of reality would be available to the masses. SOTT, Red Pill Press and the people behind them stand on the front line of resistance against the centuries-old efforts to repress, dumb down and deny human beings their right to knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live. Regardless of the attacks and efforts to silence us, our readers can rest assured that we will not shrink from the task at hand.