Sarah Palin's Cutting-Edge National Book Tour

From the Wall Street Journal, "Palin's Book Tour Builds on Effective Web Strategy"

Sarah Palin's national book tour -- and image campaign -- will build on the Internet strategy that has allowed the former vice-presidential candidate to leapfrog traditional media outlets and appeal directly to her dedicated and vocal fan base.

The coming tour through small towns and midsize cities is designed mostly to maximize sales of "Going Rogue: An American Life," which will be formally released Nov. 17. But associates say it also serves as a reintroduction for Ms. Palin and a warm-up for what promises to be a starring role in next year's midterm elections and, if her supporters get their wish, the next presidential race.

Among the features of this new strategy: buying Internet advertising based on Google searches of her name, and using Facebook as virtually her only means of communicating with voters. Her team also has considered filing libel suits against bloggers who spread

Within its 413 pages, "Going Rogue" seeks to blame aides to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain for many of Ms. Palin's worst media moments in the 2008 presidential campaign, such as her interview with CBS's Katie Couric, according to a copy of the book purchased from a bookstore by The Wall Street Journal. Ms. Palin complained that the network "systematically sliced out material that would accurately convey my message." A CBS spokeswoman said the interview "speaks for itself."

Since then, her political tactics have been unorthodox. Her August Facebook entry warning that President Barack Obama's health bill would create a "death panel" inspired Tea Party activists to crash congressional town hall meetings and moved public opinion against the White House. Her surprise resignation from the Alaska governorship over the July 4th weekend helped her dominate the news and drove heavy traffic to the Web site for SarahPAC, her political action committee.

"She resigned as governor, still has all this power...and her book before it's even published is a best seller," said John Coale, a Washington lawyer who helped Ms. Palin devise her early strategy. "Going Rogue" is published by HarperCollins, a unit of News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal.

More at the link (including a cool interactive timeline).

It turns out that Palin's savvy Internet strategy hasn't been all that friendly to conservative media. See Robert Stacy McCain, "Why is Sarah Palin Dissing Conservative Media?"