DelMio Explorations

Want to be president? Write a book

By Erica Weisburn

Presidential candidates establishing themselves as published authors isn’t a recent movement. It is believed to have originated 50 years ago when John F. Kennedy’s book Profiles in Courage won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957, according to the New York Times. Many of these books are an effort to persuade, a way to explain mishaps of the past and provide a microscope that narrows in on the person behind the political mask.
These reasons for writing a book all hold true today. However, books have become more than just a hobby for presidential candidates. Instead, a candidate’s book is sometimes a vital component to his or her strategy of taking the White House. The New York Times reports that Mark Halperin, the political director of ABC News, says “you’re not a real candidate if you haven’t written your own book.”
Clinton, Obama, Giuliani, Edwards, McCain. Everyone is doing it. No matter the amount of publicity a candidate has, most will jump into the book craze hoping to make news and lead best-seller charts. Only some have been that lucky.
Since Kennedy’s award-winning book, candidates year after year have strived to achieve what Chuck Todd, editor in chief of The Hotline, calls “the Profiles in Courage moment.”
Some books have flopped, but some have felt the glory of being a best seller. Sen. Barack Obama’s Audacity of Hope was listed as a best seller for several weeks and has sold more than 1 million copies since its release in October 2006, The Associated Press reports.
Whether the authors’ intentions are to grab media attention, reiterate their political agendas or sway the votes in their direction, the top contenders all have one thing in common — they are earning top dollar to do it.
According to AP and Nielsen BookScan, which tracks sales records, Sen. Hillary Clinton has made $9.2 million from Living History since its publication in 2003, making her the literary profits frontrunner. Eight million of that was for signing the book deal with Simon and Schuster; the rest was from book sales.
While Sen. Barack Obama has had a competing number of books sales with Clinton’s Living History, he hasn’t seen nearly as much profit from his book. He received only a $425,000 advance.
HarperCollins paid former Sen. John Edwards a $500,000 advance for Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives. Since then, the 2006 published book has made more than $300,000 in royalties.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain haven’t been as successful. Giuliani has only seen $146,000 in book royalties from 665,000 books sold since Leadership was released in 2002.
McCain’s revenue for the four books he published under Random House only profited in the amount of about $80,000 for 2006, a huge decline from sales in previous years.
Jonathan Karp, publisher of McCain’s Hard Ball, assures that these numbers might not reflect popularity at the polls. He makes reference to 2004 candidate Sen. John Kerry’s book flop, which made only $89,000 in 2003.
Karp says this is because most candidates aren’t strong writers, AP reports. Also, some candidates don’t concentrate on book tours and promotions as much as others.
Regardless of what the 2008 decision shows, candidates who have established themselves as authors have increased their publicity with voters, leaving them chapters ahead of candidates who haven’t.

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