Candidates by the Book

self | 7/23/2015 | LS

[LS]

Candidates, By the Book

Recently Senator Ted Cruz and the New York Times engaged in a hot debate over how many books the senator had sold---Cruz won that debate and his book appeared on the Times bestseller list. But it underscored the reality that the more than a dozen presidential candidates have almost all used a book as “coming-out” biography to fuel their campaigns.

Whether it was Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope or George W. Bush’s A Charge to Keep, the biography has been a favored mechanism for political candidates to introduce themselves to the public. Even John F. Kennedy, while not writing a biography, sought to use the literary world to become a household name with his Profiles in Courage.

While many of the current crop of contenders published their introductory books in 2012, or, as in the case of Benjamin Carson, Rick Santorum, and Donald Trump, as under the aegis of restoring America, imparting common sense, or sharing wealth-building secrets, one can still learn much about the viability of candidates by the books they use to present themselves to the voters.

Nielsen’s Bookscan is the industry standard for measuring point of sale data from the nation’s retailers. While BookScan does not record eBook, or library purchases, it is interesting to see where the current crop of candidates measure comparatively.

*Consumers purchased over 371,000 of Ben Carson’s most recent political “introduction” book, One Nation (2014). But his previous book, America the Beautiful (2011) sold about 351,000 copies and his personal biography (Gifted Hands, the 1996 version and subsequent iterations) sold 572,000. Throw in his previous book to that, Think Big (1993) at 45,800, and Carson is a publishing machine, second only to The Donald.

*John Kasich, Every Other Monday (2010), Stand For Something (2006) and his 1999 book Courage is Courageous combine for about 32,000.. Bobby Jindal’s Leadership and Crisis (2010) has notched 20,000 in sales.

*Ted Cruz’s A Time for Truth had sold over 11,000 in its first week and a half, and has indeed been placed on the Times list.

* Mike Huckabee wrapped up his tour for his God, Guns, Grits and Gravey which turned in a respectable 66,000 books, almost 1,500 audio books and a unique measure of 4,266 signed editions. With twelve books in print, most of which are a mix of policy and homespun autobiography, Huckabee records just under 673,000 books, an impressive total.

*Carly Fiorina’s 2006 memoir for her governor’s race, Tough Choices, racked up over 58,000 sales, and Rick Perry’s 2008 On My Honor managed a respectable 17,600, eclipsed by his Fed UP (2010) at 27,000.

*Two of the newer faces in the race, Marco Rubio (An American Son, 2012) with 36,700 and his subsequent American Dreams (2015) with 7800, along with Rand Paul’s 2015 Taking a Stand (7,700) suggest that their biographies are not going to be the political icebreaker their campaign teams hoped. Media darling, Chris Christie has not written a book. His biography, The Inside Story (2012) stands at just under 4,000 in both hardcover and paperback.

On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices, coming from one of the best-known women in America and supported by the hype (and purchases) of the Democrat machine had to be considered a publishing failure at just 289,000 copies in hardcover and paperback. But her 2003 book lived up to expectations: Living History tallied over 1.5 million copies in English and Spanish. There are also more biographies about Hillary Clinton than not only any other candidate, but most of this nations presidents. Bernie Sanders 1997 book, Outsider in the House, is too old to record BookScan data, so his only book is a reprint of his 2010 filibuster speech which had sold 14,000 copies before this year and is showing a step rise in recent weeks.

But then comes the King of the Hill. Donald Trump is no stranger on how books can further his brand name. With over 15 titles dating back to his highly successful The Art of the Deal (1989), has racked up total sales approaching 2 million copies sold.

In short, the sales of the active presidential candidates’ books reflect strongly their standings in the polls, perhaps with the exceptions of Carson, whose personal story may be more compelling than his political philosophy, and Mike Huckabee, who seems unable to translate sales into votes. The inability of Rand Paul or Chris Christie to gain traction is reflected in their low sales numbers, while Fiorina and, to a lesser degree, Marco Rubio and Rick Perry can take solace in the fact that they have a larger core audience, but still well below the leaders. Clearly Donald Trump has a platform no one else, not even Hillary Clinton, has. Whether he can exploit that advantage remains to be seen.

Larry Schweikart is a Professor of History at the University of Dayton and is working on a new biography of Ronald Reagan.