Bill Clinton Meets The #MeToo Moment

This disaster of an appearance surely has people aware of the book. And here’s the thing, too — it’s apparently an excellent read.

With BookExpo, the trade show, concluded last Friday, the book-focused proceedings at Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Convention Center continued into the weekend with BookCon, the readers show. Former president Bill Clinton’s new book — a thriller, The President Is Missing, which he co-wrote with bestselling author James Patterson — got a big boost at BookCon on Sunday, though the plot thickened shortly afterward.

“The BookCon talk went very well. If they had left it at that, maybe they would have got away clean,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer. Later, “Clinton blew up at NBC reporter Craig Melvin when he predictably asked about Monica Lewinsky. Clinton sounded terse, unapologetic, utterly self-concerned, and unlikable. It was a terrible look. It was painful, too, to watch James Patterson sit through that beside Clinton.

“But, we are talking about publicity here, right? This disaster of an appearance surely has people aware of the book, no question about it,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “And here’s the thing, too—it’s apparently an excellent read. PW gave the book a starred review and raved about it.”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.