White House Promotes Book By Trying to Block It

The Department of Justice under the Trump Administration has again shown a talent for book publicity.

Set for publication on November 19, A Warning is pitched as, “an unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency” written by an anonymous author who served as “a senior Trump administration official.” The book grew out of a September 2018 New York Times op-ed column that claimed the author and others in the White House were part of an internal “resistance” to the President.

This week, Publishers Weekly reported that the Department of Justice had written to Hachette Book Group, the book publisher’s parent company, claiming that releasing A Warning could violate a non-disclosure agreement. Hachette general counsel Carol Ross replied, “Please be assured that Hachette takes its legal responsibilities seriously and, accordingly, Hachette respectfully declines to provide you with the information your letter seeks.”

“If any potential book buyers hadn’t heard about this book before, well they sure have now,” notes Andrew Albanese, PW senior writer.

There are distinct echoes in the recent DOJ letter of a similar missive the administration sent to Macmillan officials over Michael Wolff’s Fire & Fury in January 2018.

“In that case, it was the president’s lawyer seeking to block publication with a cease-and-desist letter,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “As Macmillan CEO John Sargent later told a BookExpo audience, his reaction was, ‘holy cow, we are going to sell a shitload of books.’”

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.