Demand for Trump-related titles sparks expected record year for political books

A report from The Wall Street Journal foresees an extremely high demand for Trump-related political books as sales have soared for recent releases.

The article notes that books by Trump’s niece Mary Trump, his former national security adviser John Bolton and veteran journalist Bob Woodward all with a focus on Trump are currently top sellers on Amazon. All three titles were released within the past four months.

Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” sold more than 780,000 copies in the week after it was published. Mary Trump’s book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” sold nearly a million in pre-sales and first-day purchases.

Former President Obama’s upcoming memoir, “A Promised Land,” is expected to perpetuate the public’s ongoing appetite for insight into the Trump administration and D.C. machinations.

Executive director of business development at NPD BookScan Kristen McLean said regarding this year’s political book sales, “2020 is on track to be the biggest year for political books since we began tracking U.S. book sales in 2004.”

In the first three years of his presidency more than a thousand titles were published about the president, more than twice the number of books published about Obama during his tenure.

NPD points out how impressive the surge in book sales is especially when taking into account how badly bookstores have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Sales are up 6 percent for print books and 7.6 percent for e-books.

The Wall Street Journal brings up how the heightened interest can also been seen in newspaper subscriptions and cable news viewership. Ever since he was elected in 2016, news organizations have enjoyed what has been referred to as a “Trump bump” in their audience numbers.

Simon & Schuster, publisher of the books by Mary Trump, Bolton and Woodward, has benefited the most from this recent demand and has doubled its market share of political books in the past year, accounting for 35 percent such titles.

Books-A-Million CEO Terry Finley believes that the demand for these books is reaching its expiration date, specifically Election Day.

“People get exhausted with the election cycle, and their appetites eventually find other outlets,” he said.

However, David Drake of Crown, who is publishing Obama’s upcoming memoir, anticipates politically minded book sales to remain strong.

“The challenges America is grappling with continue post election regardless of the election outcome,” Drake said.