A year after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows released a tell-all book about his 10 months in the White House that promised to be a “frank, candid account” of running Trump’s chaotic West Wing.
The buzz around it was heavy. But in the publishing world, it was a bust.
“The Chief’s Chief” has sold only 21,569 books, according to NPD Bookscan, a market research firm that tracks book sales. And it’s not the only book by an ex-Trump aide that has failed to fly off the shelves.
The memoir of Deborah Birx, the Covid response coordinator under Trump, has sold fewer than 6,000 copies; Dr. Scott Atlas’ book sold 27,013 copies; Dr. Ben Carson’s book sold 21,786 copies; former White House press secretary turned Trump critic Stephanie Grisham sold 38,249 books; counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway has sold 42,273 books since it was published in late May; and former defense secretary Mark Esper sold 20,900 books.
Former attorney general Bill Barr sold 64,103 books. But the one Trump post-White House book sales that did best appears to be Peter Navarro’s, whose “In Trump Time” has sold 80,218 copies of his book so far. The book, unlike the others, is less a revelation about life inside the former administration than an ode to Trump’s approach to governance. Perhaps for that reason, it has earned extensive publicity in MAGA circles and is currently advertised on Steve Bannon’s The War Room website.
“Since he left office, the Trump memoirs have not done great,” said one top publishing executive, who was granted anonymity to talk candidly about author sales. “Each of the people who have written a book so far was telling stories that we pretty much already knew.”
Bookscan data is not a full account of a book’s success as it captures around 70 percent of hardcover sales and does not track ebook and audio uploads. Still, the numbers show a sea change in the audience for works from Trump-tied authors. Dishy books by former Trump White House and administration figures, after all, used to be a boon for booksellers.
Former national security adviser John Bolton’s book “The Room Where It Happened,” has racked up a whopping 680,949 in sales according to BookScan. And former FBI director James Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty,” was also a success with 626,810 in sales.
But those works benefited from timing and intrigue. Trump was in the White House, and the nation was eager for a window into how things actually operated. Bolton’s book, in particular, benefited from his back and forth with the White House about whether he …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/23/trump-aides-book-00041620