San Diego Union
HUBBARD HOT-AUTHOR STATUS CALLED ILLUSION
by Mike McIntyre
In 1981, St. Martin's Press was offered a sure thing.
L. Ron Hubbard, the pulp writer turned religious leader,
had written his first science-fiction novel in more than 30
years. If St. Martin's published it, Hubbard aides promised
the firm, subsidiary organizations of Hubbard's Church of
Scientology would buy at least 15,000 copies.
"Battlefield Earth," priced at $24.95, was released the
next year in hardcover, rare for a science-fiction title.
Despite mixed reviews, the book quickly sold 120,000 copies -
enough to place it on The New York Times best-seller list.
"Five, six, seven people at a time would come in, with
cash in hand, buying the book," said Dave Dutton, of Dutton's
Books, a group of four stores in the Los Angeles area.
"They'd blindly ask for the book. They would buy two or
three copies at a time with $50 bills. I had the suspicion
that there was something not quite right about it."
Dutton only suspected what others claim to know for fact.
The book's sudden success, say dozens of former Scientologists and book
dealers, was the result of a church plan
to create the illusion of L. Ron Hubbard as a hot author.
The church, they say, sustains the myth - 15 New York Times
best sellers and counting - through dubious marketing tactics
and the manipulation of an obedient flock of consumers.
The church's orchestration of best sellers, say former
Scientologists, is merely a public relations means to a
larger end. The goal is to establish an identity for Hubbard
other than as the founder of a controversial religious movement. His
broadened appeal can then be used to recruit new
members into the Church of Scientology.
The church uses two businesses to peddle its books, Author
Services Inc., a Hollywood literary agency, sells the rights
to publish Hubbard's works to Bridge Publications Inc., a Los
Angeles company.
A Church of Scientology spokeswoman, Leisa Goodman, said
that the church, Author Services and Bridge are seperate and
independent. But former Scientology officials say that
Bridge and Author Services are staffed almost exclusively by
Scientologists and operate within the church hierarchy.
"Author Services used to always think of schemes to make
more money," said Vicki Azneran, the former inspector general
of the Religious Technology Center, an organization that
former church members say runs the entire Scientology empire.
"Bridge gets the money from a totally controlled cult population.
"They send people into bookstores. You get a phone call:
'Your job is to go down to the B. Dalton. Take as many
people as you need to buy up all the books so they'll have to
reorder.'"
Numerous calls to Author Services were not returned.
Church and Bridge officials denied that sales of Hubbard's
books have been artificially inflated.
But others dispute that claim, saying the church perfected
its technique through the 1980s. After the success with St.
Martin's, a reputable New York publisher, Bridge took over.
Its 1983 paperback release of "Battlefield Earth" was a best
seller. Around the same time, Bridge's re-issue of
"Dianetics," the scripture of Scientology that Hubbard wrote
in 1950, returned to best seller lists.
Hubbard's death in January 1986 did not break the streak.
From 1985 to 1987, Bridge published Hubbard's 10-volume
science-fiction series, "Mission Earth." All 10 books were
hardcover best sellers. Subsequent paperback releases of the
early volumes also were best sellers. And, if form follows,
the volumes yet to be released in paperback also will be best
sellers.
At the close of the '80s, Bridge claimed Hubbard's books
had generated $90 million in revenues for the publishing industry. But
unlike the cases of Tom Clancy or Danielle
Steele, L. Ron Hubbard's meteoric rise as a best-selling author may have
little to do with readers.
"We were told to go out and buy a bunch of copies of
'Battlefield Earth' so it would become a best seller," said
Dr. Frank Gerbode, the former head of the Scientology mission
in Palo Alto. "The arguement we were given was, if he became
famous again as a science-fiction writer, it would improve
his status."
Aznaran, who defected from the church in 1987, said
Scientologists comply because the church teaches them that
the future of their religion and their souls is linked to the
success of Hubbard's novels.
"Scientologists are told they're supposed to buy lots of
those books," Aznaran said. "They're told they're helping
save the world with Scientology. If they can create a good
image for Hubbard, they will be assured spiritual salvation."
MANUFACTURING A BEST SELLER
There was a time when Hubbard's fiction required no artificial boosts
to succeed. In the 1930's, he was a popular
and enormously prolific pulp adventure writer, publishing
millions of words.
In 1938, Hubbard switched genres. With writers such as
Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and A.E. Van Vogt, he ushered
in the Golden Age of science fiction. His heroes tended to
be supermen who drew on highly developed mental powers to
save the world. By the late 1940s, nearly 100 of his novels
had been published, including "Final Blackout," an early
classic of the field.
But his voluminous output did not translate into wealth.
"Writing science fiction for about a penny a word is no
way to make a living," Hubbard said to a 1947 gathering of
the Eastern Science Fiction Association. "If you really want
to make a million, the quickest way is to start your own religion."
The remark proved prophetic. Hubbard founded the Church
of Scientology in 1955 and started amassing his fortune. By
the time of his death in 1986, reported Forbes magazine, his
organization was worth $400 million.
Nearing the end of his life, the cult leader apparently
grew nostalgic for his first vocation. "I'm very proud of
also being known as a science-fiction writer," Hubbard wrote
in his introduction to "Battlefield Earth." The book, he
said, "celebrates my golden wedding with the muse. Fifty
years a professional - 1930-1980."
Harvey Haber, a former Scientologist who served as
Hubbard's literary aide, was dispatched to New York to sell
the manuscript. Hubbard demanded that the book be represented by a
major literary agency and placed with one of the
10 largest publishers. The church and Bridge Publications
were to play no role.
"He wanted to prove to everyone and all that he still had
it," Haber said. "That he was the best in the world."
But 58 New York literary agencies thought otherwise, Haber
said. "Not one of them would touch it." In Haber's opinion,
"The book was a piece of shit."
Church officials didn't dare tell Hubbard his book was
unmarketable, said Haber. "You would've been handed your
head." Thus, he said, was hatched the plan to offer guaranteed
sales in return for publication.
Even that was not enough for some publishers. David
Hartwell, who in 1981 was director of science fiction at
Simon & Schuster, declined to publish "Battlefield Earth" despite
guaranteed sales of 35,000 copies. "I didn't think it
was a terribly good book," Hartwell said.
Hubbard's aides then knocked on St. Martin's door, and the
publisher welcomed them in.
The book was published in August 1982. The church, Haber
said, transferred funds from its international reserves to
buy 25,000 copies of "Battlefield Earth" from St. Martin's.
Bridge Publications and its European affiliate, New Era Publications,
were then ordered to replace the money. About the
same time, Author Services was created, allegedly to manage
Hubbard's finances and those of the church.
St. Martin's senior editor Michael Denneny confirmed that
a deal was struck. He recalled, however, that Author Services
guaranteed to buy 15,000 to 20,000 copies. But when
"Battlefield Earth" was published, he said, Author Services
bought more copies than originally promised.
"The Author Services people were very rambunctious,"
Denneny said. "They wanted to make it a New York Times best
seller. They were obsessed by that."
When "Battlefield Earth" reached the shelves, the Cult
Awareness Network, a national non-profit clearinghouse for
information on cults, started hearing from book dealers in
the New York area.
"Bookstores were calling us and asking what was
happening," said Priscilla Coates, then director of the
network. "People were calling them up and ordering multiple
copies. The largest (order) was over 100."
Some Scientologists noticed that these tactics had a familiar ring to
them. Hana Whitfield, a personal aide to
Hubbard from 1967 to 1977, said the Scientology leader routinely issued
"project orders" in the 1970s to buy
"Dianetics."
Church members were given lump sums of up to $50,000,
Whitfield said, and sent to book stores.
"Some of them had a quota. For example: 'Buy 50 copies
from this B. Dalton on this street every two weeks.' Or:
'Buy 50 copies from that Waldenbooks on that street every
other week.'
"As they were bought, they would be disposed of, or given
to libraries, or stored in warehouses, or sent back to the
printer and recycled."
A Riverside librarian recalled that throughout the '70s,
the county's 30 branches frequently received donated copies
of "Dianetics." "I remember they used to come in boxes...
about five books per box," said Billie Dancy, head of the
Riverside Central Library. "They'd arrive in the mail."
The church's techniques were a bit more refined when
Hubbard resumed his literary career in the early 1980s.
Vicki Aznaran said each of Scientology's 419 subsidiary
organizations and missions has orders to fund a seperate
checking account called "The Book Account." Bridge Publications,
she said, is a signatory on all of the accounts.
"Bridge holds the checkbooks," Aznaran said. "Bridge just
writes checks to itself.
"All Scientology organizations are required to buy so many
books. They are just shipped the books. They have warehouses full of
books. Bridge just had books printed. They
have this captive purchasing group that has no choice in buying them. It
would be like Stephen King billing B. Dalton
for books it didn't want."
There are numerous stories of Scientologists being coerced
to buy Hubbard's books. Gerbode, the former head of the Palo
Alto mission, said he was required to stock 100 copies of every Hubbard
title. "We ended up with a huge storeroom of
books we couldn't get rid of," he said.
Bent Corydon, the former head of the Riverside mission,
said in his unauthorized biography of Hubbard that he was
once ordered to sell his flock 1,000 copies of "Battlefield
Earth" or lose his mission.
In "L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?" (co-authored with
L. Ron Hubbard Jr.), Corydon also recalled a 1982 meeting
where mission holders were given a directive by Wendall
Reynolds, introduced as the International Finance Dictator.
Reynolds, Corydon wrote, said that from then on each mission
would be required to pay 5 percent of its income to a TV advertising
campaign for "Dianetics."
SELLING THE 'DOORSTOP'
At 819 pages, "Battlefield Earth" was thought at the time
to be the longest science-fiction novel ever published. But
it was only a preview of what was to follow.
Readers contemplating the 10-volume "Mission Earth," a
sprawling saga of an alien invasion, were faced with more
than 5,000 pages and 1,354,000 words.
The science-fiction community refers to the series as "a
doorstop," said Bruce Pelz, a UCLA librarian and science-fiction
historian.
The New York Times gave up after the first volume, dismissing it as
"a paralyzingly slow-moving adventure enlivend
by interludes of kinky sex, sendups of effeminate homosexuals
and a disregard of conventional grammar so global as to suggest a satire
on the possibility of communication through
language."
But like "Dianetics" and "Battlefield Earth" before it,
copies of "Mission Earth" almost flew off the shelves.
Once again, former church officials say, a captive audience of
Scientologists was marshaled to move the books
through the checkout stands and onto the best-seller lists.
But by now, the church had also fine-tuned a complex marketing apparatus.
The tactics employed ranged from innovative
and aggressive advertising to almost giveaway discounts offered to
stores reporting to best-seller lists.
The most visible marketing method has been old-fashioned
promotion, where Bridge Publications stands alone in the book
industry.
Bridge advertises nationally on television, a rarity in
publishing. There are national print ads, radio spots, L.
Ron Hubbard billboards. In the current Spring Announcements
issue of Publishers Weekly, the bible of the book industry,
Bridge is the only publisher with a full-color three-page
display. It is also one of the few publishers to pursue the
military market, advertising in Stars and Stripes.
Bridge is perhaps the only publisher involved in sports
marketing, sponsoring Indy 500 and Le Mans race cars. Broadcasts of
California Angels and San Fransisco Giants baseball
games are sponsored in part by Bridge. And Bridge is a major
sponsor of this summer's Goodwill Games in Seattle.
Celebrity Scientologists, including actress Karen Black
and musician Chick Corea, stump for Bridge on radio and TV
shows. There are parades and mall appearances by sciencefiction
characters from Hubbard's books. A "Mission Earth"
album by rocker Edgar Winter. Posters, banners, fliers,
bumper stickers, buttons. At book conventions, lavish parties complete
with champagne and chocolate-dipped fruit.
When retailers place orders by phone with Ingram Book Co.,
the nation's largest wholesaler, they frequently hear clerks
recite paid ads for Hubbard's books.
Hubbard's books are prominently displayed at B. Dalton and
Waldenbooks outlets - often in the prime floor space near the
door - in flashy cardboard cases provided by the publisher.
Bridge is a frequent advertiser in the chains' catalogs and
newsletters. Bridge also generously funds "co-op" ads, bookstore
ads subsidized by a publisher.
All of this costs a great deal of money. Bridge senior
vice president Mark McKinstry declined to reveal the publisher's
operating budget. But former employees said funds
available to market Hubbard's books are virtually without
limit.
"You can't think of Bridge as a normal business or publisher. They
are like the world's largest vanity press,"
said Mary Mason, who worked in promotions for Bridge during
release of the "Mission Earth" series.
"They pour more money into promoting those books than most
major publishers would spend on an entire line of books. The
whole thing is set up to lose money. If Bridge ever wound up
making money, I don't think they'd know what to do."
Bob Erdmann, a publishing consultant for Bridge from 1982
to 1988, said his former client is without comparison in the
industry.
"You weren't limited by resources like other publishing
houses are," he said.
There are also those who contend there are no limits on
the discounts Bridge offers certain customers.
McKinstry said the publisher sells its books to retail
stores at a discount of 50 percent to 52 percent - a rate he
called "standard." But two book dealers once among those
surveyed for The New York Times best-seller lists said Bridge
has been willing to go far higher.
Larry Todd, formerly manager of Hunter's Books in Beverly
Hills, said Bridge offered him discounts as high as 80 percent, a rate
he had never been offered by any publisher during his 35 years in the
book business. "They (Bridge) were
willing to stock the books at next to nothing if we would
display them with the best sellers," said Todd, who declined.
Todd said the offer came in 1986, during release of the
"Mission Earth" series, from Bridge sales representative
Howard Ramer. Todd quoted Ramer as saying: "We want to make
sure that (the new volume of 'Mission Earth') is on the
best-seller list. we're sure it will be and we want your
participation in helping it get there."
Reached for comment, Ramer said: "I really don't remember
that at all. I can't say that it isn't true, but I can't
reacll that. I wouldn't be surprised that that might of happened."
Dave Dutton, of Dutton's Books, said Bridge has offered
him up to 70 percent discounts - "twice what we would normally get."
Dutton said he quit stocking Hubbard's books several years
ago after some unpleasant sales pitches by Bridge representatives,
including a request for a window display.
"We said no, and they would not take no for an answer,"
Dutton said. "They were almost intimidating."
Michael Kagay, editor of news surveys at The New York
Times, said the paper has "encountered no evidence" that
Bridge has manipulated the best-seller lists. He said that
its large survey sample - 3,000 stores - would minimize the
effect of "unusual patterns." But he also said: "A change in
sales patterns of the major chains has a larger effect on the
figures."
Spokeswomen for B. Dalton and Waldenbooks, the nation's
two largest book chains, declined to reveal sales figures for
Hubbard's books. Sharon Jonas, of B. Dalton, which has about
1,000 stores, and Dara Tyson, of Waldenbooks, which has about
800 stores, also declined to reveal the discounts the chains
receive from Bridge. Both said that the chains have no data
on who is buying Hubbard's books from their stores.
"Who buys his books?" said Tyson. "We don't know."
A former employee of both chains offered a more detailed answer.
"What we used to see was the L. Ron Hubbard people coming
into the chains, buying books out so we'd have to reorder
them. Then they'd return them," said Eleanor Lang, a former
manager of a B. Dalton store in the New York City area and an
ex-employee of Waldenbooks.
"Throughout the '80s, B. Dalton had a liberal return
policy," said Lang, now the publicist for the science-fiction
publisher Tor Books. "Once a chain store sells through a
book, it's on their computer as having been sold. Once on
the computer, the computer automatically reorders it."
That might help explain why hardcover copies of the
"Mission Earth" series are a common sight these days on remainder
shelves.
"This month Bridge Publications quietly offered remainder
houses 237,848 'Mission Earth' hardcovers," publisher Lyle
Stuart wrote last July in his newsletter Hot News, under the
heading "That Scientology Scam." "This must be something of
a record in the remainder industry."
Through their spokeswomen, B. Dalton and Waldenbooks also
denied that they sell floor space to Bridge or any publisher.
Two industry sources disputed that claim. Alice Allen,
spokeswoman for the American Booksellers Association, said
retailers maintain that the chains engage in the unpopular,
but not illegal, practice of selling prime display space.
Betty Wright, executive director of the National Association of
Independent Publishers, said prime display space
is not only sold, but that Bridge is a major purchaser of it.
"They're buying floor space, there's no question about
that. You can't walk into a bookstore without seeing their
big cardboard displays," said Wright. "One of the most valuable
things you can do besides advertising is buy floor
space. there are 50,000 books published every year. And
let's face it, they can't all be in bookstores."
'THE BRIDGE TO TOTAL FREEDOM'
Bridge's senior vice president Mark McKinstry denied that
the publisher buys Hubbard's books to inflate sales.
A spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology also denied
that Hubbard's followers are required to purchase his books.
"You can't make anyone buy anything," said Leisa Goodman,
from the L. Ron Hubbard Office of Public Relations in Los
Angeles. "People spend their money because they want to."
Goodman also denied any official link between the church
and Bridge Publications.
"We have a relationship like any client and publisher,"
Goodman said. "It's just probably closer."
Much closer, say former Scientologists.
Vicki Aznaran, the former inspector general of the Religious Technology
Center, said the center controls a
Scientology network of 419 subsidiary groups, including
Bridge Publications. Her claim was echoed by several other
former church officials.
In addition, the Religious Technology Center is listed
prominently in an internal church document, "The Command
Chart of Scientology."
The Religious Technology Center appears at the top of the
chart. One level below, within a body called the Watchdog
Committee, is the office of the executive director of the
Church of Scientology International. And one level below
that is Bridge Publications.
Appearing on the same level of the chart as Bridge is the
church's public relations office.
In a 1989 issue of "Hotline," a Church of Scientology
newsletter for its publicists, a new public relations strategy was
announced.
"For the first time in the history of Dianetics and
Scientology the PR (public relations) positioning for L. Ron
Hubbard (LRH) has been established:
"One of The Most Acclaimed and Widely Read Authors of All Time.
"This is a major breakthrough that will have far-reaching
effects for the future of PR and the expansion of
Scientology...
"There have of course been a number of successful PR campaigns
for LRH and his works. The Dianetics Campaign, campaigns for 'Battlefield
Earth' and 'Mission Earth,' even local campaigns...
"But what we have lacked is the full power of a coordinated push
from ALL sectors of Scientology promoting LRH in a
concerted manner and with a single image.
"For it is LRH's image on which all the rest of our expansion
depends. To the degree that LRH is made the stable terminal in society,
people will reach for his books and services and we can get them on the
Bridge to Total Freedom."
Further facts
about this criminal empire may be found at
Operation Clambake and FACTNet.
April 15, 1990
front page article
The views and opinions stated within this web page are those of the
author or authors which wrote them and may not reflect the views and
opinions of the ISP or account user which hosts the web page. The
opinions may or may not be those of the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank.
This web page (and The Skeptic Tank) is in no way connected with
nor part of the Scientology crime syndicate. To review the crime syndicate's
absurdly idiotic web pages, check out www.scientology.org or any one of the
many secret front groups the cult attempts to hide behind.
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.