Chicago Tribune (Sunday)

Books got a bump from Trump. Can it continue?

Publishers bank on ongoing interest

- By Alexandra Alter

In the past four years, publishers have released more than a thousand books about Donald Trump. Authors have examined seemingly every facet of his persona, in works about his presidency, family, political rise, business dealings, reality-TV career and golfing habits. The body of work is so voluminous that there’s even a book about all the Trump books.

What’s left to parse? A lot, it seems. as his presidency comes to an end, publishers are racing to acquire news-breaking-works about his final days in office, aswell as comprehens­ive historical accounts of the Trump era, sober exposition­s examining howhe has changed the Republican Party and the country, and gossipy insider accounts of what really went on in the White House.

“Trump doesn’t want to let go of his job, and a shockingly high number of us don’t want to let go of him,” said Rafe Sagalyn, a literary agent at ICM. “There’s going to be an amazing appetite for books about what happened, and all the OMG moments of the last four years. Books are the medium for filling in all these blanks.”

In the run-up to and aftermath of the election, publishers have snapped up a newcrop of Trump books by prominent journalist­s and pundits.

Penguin Random House has emerged as one of the front-runners in the race to lock up the first definitive accounts of the Trump epoch. Shortly after the election, Penguin Press announced that itwould publish New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s narrative of Trump’s political career, tracking his rise fromhis real estate developmen­t roots to the final days of his tumultuous presidency.

Penguin also acquired a newbook from Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, co-authors of “A Very Stable Genius,” published early last year. Their sequel will explore the last year of Trump’s presidency as he faced impeachmen­t, played downthe severity of the coronaviru­s pandemic, was hospitaliz­ed with COVID-19 and fought to overturn the results of the election. Doubleday, another Penguin Random House imprint, acquired a book that will be co-written by Peter Baker, chief White House correspond­ent for the New York Times, and Susan Glasser, a writer for The New Yorker, which will analyze how Trump has changed the culture and politics of Washington.

“The books that will endure are those that shape historical perspectiv­es about the period,” said Kristine Puopolo, editorial director of nonfiction at Double day. “We’re moving into a newphase where we are going to see Trump as history. We’ve seen that it is only after people leave an administra­tion that they’re open to being completely candid.”

In someways, the continued tsunami of titles is no surprise. Whenever anew president enters the White House, there’s often a surge of books that analyze the previous administra­tion, the key moments of the election and the challenges that the newp resident will face.

Still, there’s no doubt that publishers are likely to soon face the end of a very lucrative era. Trump’s presidency has been an enormous boon for the publishing industry, with breakout hits by former administra­tion officials (John Bolton, James Comeyand “Anonymous,” who later revealed himself as Miles Taylor, a former official at the Department of Homeland Security), exposes by journalist­s (Bob Woodward, Michael Wolff ) and tell-alls from estranged confidants and protégés (Michael Cohen, Omarosa Mani-gault Newman). One of 2020’s top-selling nonfiction books, Mary Trump’s “Too Much and Never Enough,” sold more than 1.3 million copies in the firstweek after its release; she recently sold a second book to St. Martin’s about Trump’s impact on the nation.

In sheer volume, Trump books dwarf works released about the previous administra­tion during its first term. There have been more than 1,200 unique titles about Trump published in the last four years, compared with around 500 books about former President Barack Obamaand his administra­tion during his first term, according to an analysis by NPD Book Scan.

Many of the factors that drove sales for earlier books about Trump might not persist after he leaves office. While Trump will likely still have a large social media platform, he’ll no longer control the bully pulpit of the White House and is unlikely to drive constant cable news coverage as he has for the past four years. Many of the most successful books about the president got a boost fromnews coverage after he publicly attacked and sometimes sued the authors and publishers. It’s uncertain whether such outbursts will captivate cable news pundits once he is no longer in office.

“There’s always interest in looking back at a presidenti­al administra­tion ,” said Robert Barnett, a Washington lawyer who has represente­d Woodward aswell as the Obamas, the Clintons, the Bushes and other political figures. “The question will be: Which of the many books will be most appealing to readers andwill break through?”

Some publishing executives remain bullish on the genre, noting that books about Trump have continued to sell well throughout his term and have already defied prediction­s that readers would one day tire of him.

“People say, ‘Well, there have been toomany Trump books,’” said Ann Godoff, Penguin’s president and editor-in-chief. “I think you haven’t seen anything yet, and the reason for that is the sources are going to come loose; they’re going to be freer to talk.”

Simon& Schuster, which published several bestsellin­g books about Trump last year, is still investing heavily in behind-the-scenes books about the president and the 2020 election. After publishing two blockbuste­rs by Woodward, “Rage” and “Fear,” Simon& Schuster plans to release Woodward’s next book, which he is writing with Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, about the final days of the Trump presidency and the beginning of President-elect Joe Biden’s administra­tion.

Publishers are betting that there will be a substantia­l lingering appetite for Trump books, but some question just how large the market will be, and how long the public’s fascinatio­n with him will last.

 ?? JESSICAWHI­TE/THENEWYORK­TIMES ?? As a newadminis­tration looms, publishers have snapped up another crop of forthcomin­gTrumpbook­s by prominent journalist­s and pundits.
JESSICAWHI­TE/THENEWYORK­TIMES As a newadminis­tration looms, publishers have snapped up another crop of forthcomin­gTrumpbook­s by prominent journalist­s and pundits.

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