At this rate, President Trump may have to be named Publishing Executive of the Year.
Almost every book Trump has blasted on Twitter in the past year has achieved blockbuster status.
That should bode well for St. Martin’s, which just released former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe’s new book, “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump.” It hit Tuesday with a blizzard of publicity and furious tweets from Trump.
On the other hand, few books over the past year that boosted Trump have reached best-seller status, and collectively they have sold far fewer copies than the books scorching the president.
On Amazon, after McCabe’s appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes”, the pre-release orders of the book even briefly replaced Michelle Obama’s memoir, “Becoming,” as top seller.
“Becoming” has sold 4 million hardcover copies since the Random House book hit in November, according to NPD BookScan, which tracks about 80 percent of the US retail market.
“People will be watching most closely to see how McCabe’s does in comparison to James Comey’s,” said one industry executive. McCabe has a big hill to climb. Former FBI director Comey’s “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership” reached No. 1 and sold 238,000 hardcover copies for the Flatiron imprint of Macmillan since its July release, according to NPD BookScan.
The reigning No. 1 anti-Trump blockbuster is still Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which sold 1.02 million copies in hardcover following its January 2018 release by Macmillan’s Henry Holt imprint. Now in paperback, the publisher said it has sold over 4 million copies worldwide when e-books and audiobooks and foreign sales are counted.
Just a whisper behind him is investigative reporter Bob Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House,” which was released by Simon & Schuster only in September but has already sold 982,000 hard cover copies.
Judge Jeanine Pirro’s “Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy” sold a healthy 238,000 hardcover copies for the Center Street imprint of Hachette Books since its July release — but that is not even the top seller in the pro-Trump genre.
That honor went to Gregg Jarrett’s “The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump,” which was also released in July by Broadside Books at Harper Collins (owned by Post parent company News Corp.), and narrowly outsold Pirro’s book, with 245,000 hardcover copies.
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s tome “Trump’s Enemies: How the Deep State is Undermining the Presidency,” moved only 62,000 copies for Hachette Books since its release in late November.
Apprentice star and ex-White House aide Omarosa Manigauld Newman’s Simon & Schuste- released book, “Unhinged: An Insiders Account of the Trump White House,” soared to No. 1 upon release after a scathing Twitter blast by Trump, but then slumped, selling 88,000 copies since its summer release.