Trump Is a Godsend for Book Publishers. He’s Also a Nightmare.

  • 📰 NYMag
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 76 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 34%
  • Publisher: 63%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

The publishing industry's Trump boom moved a lot of books. But for many publishing employees, the feeling was hardly one of jubilation. alex_shephard reports

Photo: Ben Denzer The past six months have been good to the book-publishing industry. Book sales, helped along by pandemic-induced lockdowns, are up. Adult-fiction sales have risen 30 percent year over year. And most of all, Trump hasn’t been in office. “Postelection, there’s been a breath of Thank God, we don’t have to do Trump books anymore,” one editor told me.

Publishers were initially slow to capitalize on the chaos of the Trump era. When the journalist David Cay Johnston pitched a book about Trump in 2015, he was met with silence from big publishers. At first, no one thought Trump would get the Republican nomination, then no one thought he would win the presidency. Books take months, if not years, to produce — by the time Trump volumes started rolling off the presses, the thinking went, he would be back hosting The Apprentice.

For people with #resistance in their bio, hitting BUY NOW was irresistible. For publishers, it was almost like printing money. In 2020, Mary L. Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough, John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened, and Woodward’s Rage all sold hundreds of thousands of hardback copies. NPD BookScan’s Kristen McLean called 2020 a “record-setter.” Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt credited these sales with helping to revive the flagging chain.

It doesn’t help morale that readers don’t particularly seem to care either. “People approached these books like merch,” said literary agent Kate McKean. “We all buy books we intend to read but don’t — it’s not that the content doesn’t matter, but people buy them the way they buy a shirt, a hat, a sticker.”

Now, we’re entering what one Penguin Random House publicist calls the “Downfall stage” of Trump’s presidency, referring to the film. “It’s the same people who read books about Hitler’s last days,” the publicist said. “It’s victory porn.”

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

alex_shephard A new book recreates how the internet was explained to Donald Trump.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 111. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Arizona SOS Katie Hobbs mocks 'sore loser' Trump ahead of Phoenix rally: 'Take your loss'The former president will speak at the 'Rally to Protect Our Elections' in Phoenix on Saturday evening. Guy who wanted to overturn an election will speak about protecting elections? In addition to speaking he's also accepting donations. The CIA meddles more in US elections than they do in other countries. CIA is, literally, the world's most heinous, evel terrorists organization.
Source: Newsweek - 🏆 468. / 52 Read more »

Joe Biden Responds To Rally Heckle With A Ding Of Donald TrumpPresident Joe Biden threw shade at his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, when he was heckled during a rally speech in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday night. Going low, Joe? Mocking Trump with a drink and now this. Act professional and set a good example POTUS FLOTUS
Source: YahooNews - 🏆 380. / 59 Read more »

Watch Biden Brush Off Hecklers: “This Is Not a Trump Rally, Let ‘Em Holler”Biden returned to the campaign trail to speak in favor of Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. You missed the best quote: “Biden said. “I tell you what, the guy Terry is running against is an acolyte of Donald Trump—for real, I mean it’s just like, I don’t know where these guys come from.”
Source: Slate - 🏆 716. / 51 Read more »

Donald Trump Is Keeping the MoneyTrump found a swindle in American politics where he can quite literally just ask people for money and they give it to him by the millions. Fools and their money .... GrifterGonnaGrift GrifterTRUMP So weird that other billionaires are going to space and Trump is begging poor people for money.
Source: Slate - 🏆 716. / 51 Read more »

On anniversary of Mueller Report, Trump plans his next stepTwo years ago today, Robert Mueller gave his testimony to Congress. Much has changed in that time, especially for former President Donald Trump. Has anything really changed, if he was black and poor he would be in cuffs months ago Here are the must-see moments from Robert Mueller's testimony to Congress regarding Trump's alleged obstruction of justice and Russian collusion MuellerHearing
Source: Newsweek - 🏆 468. / 52 Read more »

How Thomas Barrack links Trump to the Middle East.chrislhayes: “With the indictment of Tom Barrack, that profoundly shady and weird relationship between Trump World and the United Arab Emirates is starting to make more sense.” chrislhayes As liberals like to say about Hunter Biden. No one voted for him. What about the Biden crime family's ties to China,Russia or the Ukraine? How long has the Hunter Biden money laundering investigation been going on? chrislhayes I don’t know why, but the Hypocrite double standard the democrat media applies to this guy vs the Hunter and POTUS Big Guy business dealings with the Chinese, the Russians, the Ukrainians, and who knows what else still shocks me a little. It’s so clumsily political. chrislhayes The idea of “The common good” has become a quaint notion! The frontier life could not have worked with such selfishness! CNN WSJ foxandfriends USATODAY
Source: MSNBC - 🏆 469. / 51 Read more »