Paula Deen May Have Been Fired By Everyone, But Her Book Is No. 1

Celebrity Chef Paula Deen’s empire is still slowly falling apart as her business partners perform a mass exodus away from the racism scandal that has eaten headlines for the past few weeks. But despite her damaged media image, her personal business ventures are actually surging. Not only is her restaurant seeing a massive spike lately, her cookbook is also No. 1 on Amazon.

Her latest book, Paula Deen’s New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up has shot straight to the No. 1 spot on Amazon’s best-seller’s list and sits at No. 7 on Barnes & Noble’s Top 100 prior to its scheduled release.

The book’s publisher, Random House, is still planning on releasing the book on October 15, and is one of the few companies that hasn’t bailed on Paula Deen … yet.

“We continue to monitor the situation closely,’’ Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum said. With such high expectations for the book, it’s hard to imagine Random House walking out on her now. Future book deals may be impacted, depending on whether the controversy around Deen settles.

Others have not been so patient. As of today, Deen has been dropped by the Food Network, Smithfield Foods, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Caesars Entertainment and Target. Novo Nordisk, the maker or the diabetes drug Victoza, also announced that they are suspending their agreement with Deen “while she takes time to focus her attention where it is needed.”

That’s a lot of bad news for the chef, but is Random House the Rod Tidwell to Deen’s Jerry Maguire? Some experts do seem to think that Paula Deen will survive her racism scandal, though she may not achieve the same level of power she held before.

Her biggest problem in the short-term will be with retailers, e-tailers and anyone else who has a business venture with her. They will feel the pressure to drop her. But I think it’s a good idea for companies in business with Paula to wait and see how this plays out. We don’t fully know what we did and how bad it is and how the public will come down on this,” publicist Glenn Selig told Fox News.

Have you pre-ordered Paula Deen’s new book?