About On Kings (David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins)
As of this writing, the book On Kings by David Graeber and myself ranks 316,570 in sales on Amazon. The book is available both in print (560 pages, paperback, on demand) and by open access download under the imprint of HAU Books. HAU is the publisher of its print titles, but it does not take responsibility for promoting them.. By an agreement with HAU, the University of Chicago Press has had sole responsibility for... printing, distributing, and marketing On Kings--so we were told by the HAU executive editor.
Upon its publication late last year, however, On Kings received little publicity apart from some notices with the usual 12-hour half on the Facebook page of HAU. Indeed for some weeks after it came out, Amazon was announcing it ships in one to two months. The book was not reviewed by Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly or any other of the normal early-review publications, so far as I am aware. When David and I inquired about the possibility of some further promotion—as by placement in Chicago Press ads, for example, which is sometimes done for its client presses-- we were informed by the HAU executive editor that Chicago deemed the book “too specialized” to be included in their ads. On pressing the point, we were then told that Chicago would agree to a one-off arrangement giving On Kings space in an ad in the New York Review of Books in return for a payment of $1400 (from HAU and/or the authors).
That fell through, as have our repeated attempts to terminate the book contract with HAU.