Going Rogue 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 one million, 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. 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.
Analysis and reactions A team of eleven reporters for the
Associated Press challenged some of Palin's statements as factually incorrect, such as her assertions that she traveled frugally, avoided large campaign donors, was against the
Wall Street bailouts of 2008, and entered politics for purely altruistic reasons. Their analysis concluded by speculating that the book was "a pre-campaign manifesto". According to
Fox News, an AP spokesman "confirmed 11 people worked on the story . . . but refused to say if similar number of journalists were assigned to review other political books, or if Palin has been treated differently". Fox also reported "The (AP) organization did not review for accuracy recent books by the late Senator
Ted Kennedy, then-Senator
Joe Biden, either book by
Barack Obama released before he was president, or autobiographies by Bill or Hillary Clinton."
The Huffington Post had an article titled "The First Ten Lies from
Going Rogue", including the failure to credit ghostwriter Vincent on the cover, Palin's statement about legal bills she incurred relating to ethics complaints, without disclosing that most of the bills resulted from complaints she filed as a tactic in connection with
Troopergate; and her assertion that she had to pay $50,000 in fees to be vetted by the McCain campaign. Palin replied: "As is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book". Former McCain campaign aides "hit back", according to
Politico, "calling the former vice presidential nominee's soon-to-be released book 'revisionist and self serving' 'fiction'." A representative for
Katie Couric responded to the book's assertion that Couric had badgered Palin during their much-publicized
2008 interview by saying, "The interview speaks for itself".
Reception The book received a variety of reviews. ;Positive reviews Conservative radio talk show host
John Ziegler praised
Going Rogue as "the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime" and as showing honesty "the type of which can only come from someone incredibly courageous, grounded, and self-aware". Republican radio talk show host
Rush Limbaugh called the book "truly one of the more substantive policy books I've read".
Stanley Fish, writing for
The New York Times Opinionator blog, explained that "while I wouldn't count myself a fan in the sense of being a supporter, I found [the book] compelling and very well done". ;Mixed reviews
The Wall Street Journals Melanie Kirkpatrick described the book as "more a personal memoir than a political one", which demonstrated that Palin "is not the prejudiced, dim-witted ideologue of the popular liberal imagination". However, Kirkpatrick criticized the book as "too gentle" on the McCain campaign staffers and McCain himself, and as spending too little time discussing political issues.
Matthew Continetti of
The Washington Post observed that Palin's book was "everything you'd expect from a politician who has no intention of leaving the national scene".
Entertainment Weekly gave the book a C, praising the first chapters about Palin's life as "down-to-earth and funny", while concluding that the rest of the memoir was mediocre and self-serving. ;Negative reviews Mark Kennedy of the
Associated Press said the book was "less the revealing autobiography of a straight-shooting maverick and more a lengthy campaign speech — more lipstick, less pit bull." Like other reviewers, Kennedy felt "Palin reserves most of her attacks for McCain's advisers." Michael Carey of the
Anchorage Daily News said "there is a big something missing from Palin's narrative: the voice of a leader".
The Huffington Post described the book as "one giant complaint about the conduct of John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign".
Thomas Frank, writing for
The Wall Street Journal, panned the book: "This is the memoir as prolonged, keening wail, larded with petty vindictiveness".
Newsweek senior editor
Michael Hirsh said that "she seems to be mainly out for repudiation of her critics here, and what you see is a lot of self-involvement" and that the book would "help her with her base...I don't know if it helps at all with what she would need to actually be elected president". ==Book tour==