Conservative authors on the rise?

Things are looking good just now for writers from the right. Sarah Palin's memoir "Going Rogue: An American Life" doesn't even hit bookstores till mid-November but after becoming available for pre-order just a week ago, it has already it has replaced "The Lost Symbol" by "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown as amazon.com's bestselling book.

And No. 3 on that bestseller list is "Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government" by conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

"These are boom times for conservative authors," notes Hillel Italie who covers publishing for the Associated Press. Michelle Malkin's "Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks and Cronies," Dick Morris's "Catastrophe," and the reissue of "The Five Thousand Year Leap," by W. Cleon Skousen have all been recent strong sellers as well.

"In a similar way, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, and Mark Levin provide an opportunity for ideologically motivated consumers to see their views validated, Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp told Italie. "It's the political equivalent of attending a Grateful Dead concert. Pure and simple, it's market democracy."

It may also have something to do with the political persuasion of the occupant-in-chief of the White House, points out Italie. When Democrats are in power, attacks come from the right – and vice versa. "In the 1990s, Ann Coulter and Barbara Olson were among those who wrote best-selling attacks against President Bill Clinton," writes Italie. "Al Franken, Michael Moore, and other liberals were popular authors during the Bush administration."

Left or right, however, it's good news for publishers. "It obviously bodes well that there's so much interest and excitement," said Tina Andreadis, spokeswoman for HarperCollins, publisher of Palin's book.