Donald Trump Saves the Publishing Industry… again

This might not be the best news for book publishers.  The short version is that print sales were down last month (February 2018) despite a huge opening for The Threat by fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

The Threat sold around 67,000 copies last month (which is pretty good, I guess) and knocked Michelle Obama’s book out of the #1 spot in nonfiction and bestsellers (which isn’t good if you like Michelle Obama more than you dislike President Trump).  At any rate, without the anti-Trump book The Threat, print sales last month would have been really, really down.

The easiest way (maybe the only way) to make a lot of money in publishing (if you’re not already famous) is to write an anti-Trump book.  Andrew McCabe is just one in a long list of anti-Trump authors.

For example, Fear by Bob Woodward sold more copies in its first week than any other book in Simon & Schuster history.  Before that, a reality star wrote a book about Trump, and it became a bestseller even though everybody hates the reality star.  A former FBI director wrote a book about Trump, and it became a bestseller, even though people who hate Trump blame the former FBI director for helping Trump win.  A porn star even wrote a book about her experiences with Trump, and that became a bestseller because she’s a porn star and everyone thought the stories would be awesome.

It was actually disappointing.  You’d have thought a porn star would have had more interesting stories.

This is one of those times when I wonder if my brain works differently from everybody else’s.  I don’t understand why people who hate Donald Trump want to buy books about Donald Trump.

Don’t get me wrong, I have issues with Donald Trump, just like everybody else, but I don’t need to buy a book to find out bad stuff about him.  I can just turn on any news channel or the radio or get on the internet and find out bad stuff about Donald Trump.  I’m a cheapskate.  I don’t want to spend $25 on a hardback book just to get something I can hear for free.

Besides, I can’t live my life being outraged by politicians, especially today.  I see too many people consumed by outrage over today’s current events (which won’t stay current for very long).  Each outrage against Trump is devoured the next day by the next day’s outrage, so every outrage is outdated the next day.

The same holds true for anti-Trump books.  Each anti-Trump book gets outdated by the next one.  It must be exhausting being somebody who is outraged at Trump all the time.  Plus, it gets pretty expensive if you’re buying all the books.  I feel sorry for the political wonk whose book shelves are filled with anti-Trump books.  I think the word for that type of person is sucker.

These book sales have to tick off any political writer who is trying to write serious analysis about the Trump administration.  Trump spends most of the day with business leaders or world leaders or rallies or golf courses, and all anybody talks about are rumors and tweets.  There’s serious stuff going on with the tariffs and the Chinese and the North Koreans and NAFTA and it’s all connected, but the journalists who want us to rely on them for information are focused on stuff that is not necessarily serious, or they rely on sources who are known liars (and want us to forget about their previous dishonesty).

It’s kind of sad that the book business needs President Trump.  When Trump is no longer president (whether he’s forced out, or loses reelection, or finishes out two terms), the publishing industry will need to survive without him.  Sure, there might be a couple years where they can sustain that Trump hate, but the longer he’s out, the weaker those emotions become and fewer books will sell.

Yeah, things look really bad for the publishing business when Trump leaves office.

Maybe Michelle Obama will write another book.