This summer, things are heating up for Simon & Schuster—in courtrooms where President Trump has sought to block books, and in bookstores, too, where those same books have become bestsellers.
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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In June, John Bolton found himself in court when lawyers for the White House sued to halt publication of his memoir, The Room Where It Happened, an account of his days as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019.
The attendant publicity – and the revelations of alleged presidential misdeeds and misbehavior – made the title a blockbuster, says Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
“The Bolton book is number one on the PW bestseller list, and publisher S&S has gone back to press a few times now, and has over a million copies in print,” Albanese reports.
“A lot of the conversation over the last year has been whether the appetite that fueled Trump-related bestsellers in 2018 was tapering off. Well, it was until now. Four months before the election, Trump books are hot again,” he says
This week, the Trump family also continued its legal quest to block publication of another memoir, Mary L. Trump’s family tell-all, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Those efforts have so far only caused S&S to advance the publication date.
“S&S is on track to publish the book next week on July 14,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “The publisher has already gone back to press for a sixth printing, bringing the total number of copies in print to 600,000.”
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.
