Donald Trump’s exit fuels new surge in e-book publishing offers about his presidency

Penguin additionally acquired a brand new e-book from Washington Put up reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, co-authors of A Very Steady Genius, revealed early this yr. Their sequel will discover the final yr of Trump’s presidency as he confronted impeachment, performed down the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, was hospitalised with COVID-19 and fought to overturn the outcomes of the election. Doubleday, one other Penguin Random Home imprint, acquired a e-book that will probably be co-written by Peter Baker, chief White Home correspondent for The New York Occasions, and Susan Glasser, a author for The New Yorker, which is able to analyse how Trump has modified Washington.

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Trump’s presidency has been an infinite boon for the publishing trade, with breakout hits by former administration officers (John Bolton, James Comey and “Nameless,” who later revealed himself as Miles Taylor, a former official on the Division of Homeland Safety), exposés by journalists (Bob Woodward, Michael Wolff) and tell-alls from estranged confidantes and proteges (Michael Cohen, Omarosa Manigault Newman). One of many yr’s top-selling nonfiction books, Mary Trump’s Too A lot and By no means Sufficient, bought greater than 1.3 million copies within the first week after its launch; she just lately bought a second e-book to St. Martin’s about Trump’s influence on the nation.

In sheer quantity, Trump books dwarf works launched concerning the earlier administration throughout its first time period: There have been greater than 1,200 distinctive titles about Trump revealed within the final 4 years, in comparison with round 500 books about former President Barack Obama and his administration throughout his first time period, in response to an evaluation by NPD BookScan.

Most of the components that drove gross sales for earlier books about Trump may not persist after he leaves workplace. Whereas Trump will seemingly nonetheless have a big social media platform, he’s unlikely to drive fixed cable information protection as he has for the previous 4 years. Most of the most profitable books concerning the President received a lift from information protection after he publicly attacked and generally sued the authors and publishers.

Some publishing executives stay bullish on the style, noting that books about Trump have continued to promote nicely all through his time period and have already defied predictions that readers would at some point tire of him.

“The chance for e-book publishers was enormous beginning in 2016, and will probably be enormous in 2020,” mentioned Ann Godoff, Penguin’s president and editor-in-chief. “Folks say, ‘Properly, there have been too many Trump books.’ I believe you have not seen something but, and the rationale for that’s the sources are going to come back unfastened; they’ll be freer to speak.”

Simon & Schuster remains to be investing closely in behind-the-scenes books concerning the president and the 2020 election. After publishing two blockbusters by Woodward, Rage and Concern, Simon & Schuster plans to launch Woodward’s subsequent e-book with Washington Put up reporter Robert Costa is concerning the ultimate days of the Trump presidency.

Simon & Schuster additionally acquired a e-book by New York Occasions political reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin, which is able to have a look at the 2020 election as a turning level in American politics, and an expose by reporter and longtime Trump chronicler David Cay Johnston about Trump’s funds.

Publishers are betting that there will probably be a considerable lingering urge for food for Trump books, however some query simply how massive the market will probably be, and the way lengthy the general public’s fascination with him will final. Seismic gross sales for Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land, which bought greater than 3.3 million copies in its first month, may sign that curiosity in Trump will stay excessive in coming years.

One other looming query for publishers is find out how to navigate a possible post-presidential memoir by Trump. Whereas such a e-book would undoubtedly be a mega-bestseller, mainstream publishing corporations might face a backlash from their writers and employees members. On prime of that, some publishers may balk at a Trump memoir if the e-book failed to fulfill the corporate’s requirements for accuracy – particularly if he continues to argue falsely that he received the election.

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Then once more, Trump’s refusal to concede — and his hints about working in 2024 — might assist gas curiosity in one other spherical of books concerning the forty fifth president.

“It is a exhausting habit to interrupt for publishers and the general public,” mentioned literary agent Matt Latimer, co-founder of the Javelin Company, which has represented a number of former administration officers. “The Trump phenomenon isn’t going to fully vanish. We’ll be speaking about Trump for the subsequent 4 years.”

The New York Occasions