"The book publishing business has become the new exploratory committee."

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Time to Throw Their Books Into the Ring
By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: February 22, 2007


(Stephen Kroninger)

The lineup of potential presidential candidates is a mishmash of senators, governors, former big-city mayors and a retired four-star Army general.

But nearly all of them share one title: published author.

The crowded field of early candidates has created a traffic jam of titles, from the rags-to-riches memoir to the earnest political manifesto.

All of them could be called candidate lit, a publishing minigenre that includes runaway best sellers (“The Audacity of Hope” by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois) and unqualified duds (“Between Worlds,” a memoir by Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico).

For candidates, writing a book is a way to make money, build gravitas and grab media attention. (They can also use a memoir as a dumping ground for past unpleasantries, paving the way for the campaign-trail line “I addressed that in my book.”)

For publishers the 2008 campaign season is the time to rerelease forgotten titles, sign unpublished candidates and, if they’re lucky, laugh all the way to the bank as they reap sales from best-selling political books....Mr. Obama’s publisher, Crown, just reissued his 1995 memoir, “Dreams of My Father,” in hardcover to capitalize on renewed interest. In December, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s publisher rereleased “It Takes a Village” in a 10th-anniversary edition, but it flopped, selling only 6,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks sales in most bookstores and online retailers. Mr. Richardson’s memoir will have another chance to succeed next month, when it is released in paperback.

Mr. Obama’s recent success has revived the notion of experiencing the pace and trappings of a presidential campaign through a book tour, said Chuck Todd, editor of the daily political tip sheet Hotline.

“The book publishing business has become the new exploratory committee,” Mr. Todd said. “For Obama, it was a way of testing the waters. That’s when you find out: Are you interesting enough to get enough interviews? Can you get people to show up for a signing?”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/books/22book.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin