Books got a bump from Trump. Can it continue?
Publishers bank on ongoing interest
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- TVcareerand golfing habits. The body ofwork is so voluminous that there’s evenabookabout all the Trumpbooks.
What’s left to parse? A lot, it seems. as his presidency comes to an end, publishers are racing to acquire news- breakingworks about his final days in office, aswell as comprehensive historical accounts of theTrumpera, sober expositions examining howhe has changed theRepublican Party and the country, and gossipy insider accounts of what reallywent on in the White House.
“Trump doesn’twant to let go of his job, and a shockingly high number of us don’twant to let go of him,” saidRafe Sagalyn, a literary agent at ICM. “There’sgoing tobean amazing appetite for books about what happened, and all theOMGmoments 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 ofTrump books by prominent journalists and pundits.
Penguin RandomHouse has emerged as one of the front- runners in the race to lock up the first definitive accounts of theTrump epoch. Shortly after the election, Penguin Press announced that itwould publishNewYork Times reporterMaggieHaberman’s narrative ofTrump’s political career, tracking his rise fromhis real estate development roots to the final days of his tumultuous presidency.
Penguin also acquireda new book fromWashingtonPost reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, co- authors of “AVery 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 hospitalizedwithCOVID19 and fought to overturn the results of the election. Doubleday, another Penguin RandomHouse imprint, acquired a book thatwill be co- written by PeterBaker, chiefWhite House correspondent for theNewYork Times, and Susan Glasser, awriter for TheNewYorker, which will analyze howTrump has changed the culture and politics ofWashington.
“The books that will endure are those that shape historical perspectives about the period,” said Kristine Puopolo, editorial director of nonfiction at Doubleday.“We’removing into a newphase wherewe are going to seeTrump 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 a new president enters theWhite House, there’s often a surge of books that analyze the previous administration, the key moments of the election and the challenges that thenewpresident 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 Comey and “Anonymous,” wholater revealed himself as MilesTaylor, a former official at theDepartment ofHomeland Security), exposes by journalists ( BobWoodward, Michael Wolff ) and tell- alls from estranged confidants and protégés ( Michael Cohen, OmarosaManigault Newman). Oneof 2020’ s top- selling nonfiction books, Mary Trump’s “TooMuch andNever Enough,” soldmore 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 dwarfworks released about the previous administration during its first term. There have beenmore than 1,200 unique titles aboutTrump published in the last four years, comparedwith around 500 books about former PresidentBarack Obamaand his administration during his first term, according to an analysis by NPDBookScan.
Many of the factors that drove sales for earlier books aboutTrump might not persist after he leaves office. WhileTrump will likely still have a large socialmedia platform, he’ll no longer control the bully pulpit of theWhite House and is unlikely to driveconstant cablenews coverage as he has for the past four years. Manyof 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 uncertainwhether 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,” saidRobertBarnett, aWashington lawyerwho has representedWoodward aswell as the Obamas, the Clintons, theBushes and other political figures. “The question will be: Which of themany books will be most appealing to readers andwill break through?”
Some publishing executives remain bullish on the genre, noting that books aboutTrump have continued to sellwell throughout his term and have already defied predictions that readerswould one day tire of him.
“People say,‘ Well, there have been toomanyTrump books,’” saidAnnGodoff, Penguin’spresident 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 aboutTrump last year, is still investing heavily in behind- the- scenes books about the president and the 2020 election. After publishing two blockbusters byWoodward, “Rage” and “Fear,” Simon& Schuster plans to releaseWoodward’s next book, which he is writing withWashington Post reporterRobert Costa, about the final days of theTrump presidency and the beginning of President- elect Joe Biden’s administration.
Publishers are betting that there will be a substantial lingering appetite for Trumpbooks, but some question just howlarge the market will be, and how long the public’s fascination with him will last.