There’s a huge grift in right wing book media.

They ghost write a book, buy it with campaign/superpac/donor/megachurch funds, and give them away at rallies, etc.

This has 3 benefits: funnels money to the “author”, reinforces loyalty of those that get a free book, and makes them appear popular+legitimate by being a “new york times bestseller” (etc) which also gets them in more bookstores as you’ve described.

No, PACs or think tanks or whoever buys a lot of the books then gives them away.

This bookstore thing you’re seeing is probably the publisher paying for marketing. Stocking and shelf placement guarantees, etc. Essentially they pay to have the books displayed in major bookstores. It’s not exclusive to the right, but it’s more obvious.

Also, old people buy books because when they die they want to dramatically grab the bookshelf and knock all of their books down around them so that the investigators can make a pithy comment while putting on some sunglasses

IMO you are seeing the confluence of two things

First https://electricliterature.com/are-conservative-titles-using-shady-tricks-to-get-onto-the-bestseller-list/

and second book retailers basically just filling their shelves with whatevers on the NYT bestseller list or determining what books to stock by similar metrics rather than some actually curated selection.

Worth noting that bookstores, especially corporate ones do not and usually will outright refuse to stock or even special order any leftist books. They will usually have no ability to even order you something that you’re looking for. The furthest left thing you’ll see is maybe some Noam Chomsky, angsty radlib YA fiction, or a democrat’s ghostwritten memoir.

Yes, you all need to read more theory, but don’t forget that we live in a capitalist society that’s heavily preoccupied with actively repressing and destroying any leftist thought that may occur in opposition to it.