Palin memoir knocks out topper Dan Brown

But anyone who hoped they had seen the last of Sarah Palin after she quit as Alaska’s governor had better brace themselves for a new blast as her autobiography shoots to the top of the bestseller lists weeks before it is released.

The former vice-presidential candidate has already done very nicely out of it with a reported $7million advance for the book, called Going Rogue: An American Life - mistakenly called Going Rouge by one newsreader.

Whether readers will feel the 400-plus pages are worth it remains to be seen. Palin wrote the book in just four months and finished it so far ahead of schedule that the release date was brought forward from next spring to November 17.

HarperCollins is to print 1.5 million copies but that looks likely to be just a first run with pre-orders already putting Going Rogue at the top of the bestseller list on Amazon’s American website.

It has pushed Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s latest novel from the top spot.
But at least one reader, Palin’s former running mate, John McCain, will be waiting more with trepidation than excitement.

“The part I’m looking forward to most is the part where it energised our campaign and her selection put us ahead in the polls. The part I am looking forward to least is some of the disagreements that took place within the campaign,” he told NBC.  HarperCollins describes the autobiography as “her words, her life, and it’s all there in full and fascinating detail”.

Fascinating it may prove to be from a woman who has entranced and repelled Americans, and it’s undoubtedly Palin’s life. But “her words” is a more suspect claim.

News of the autobiography’s release has already prompted a string of jokes by the late night talkshow hosts reminding the wider public about Palin’s shortcomings.

“Critics say that it starts out okay, it gets really exciting and then confusing, and then the last 100 pages are blank,” said comedian Jimmy Fallon.