Inside the Political Book Machine

In late June of 2016, the flagship imprint of HarperCollins published a debut memoir by an Ohio-born lawyer named J.D. Vance. As was expected from a memoir without a known name attached, it initially received modest attention from both the media and book buyers. But that all changed three weeks later when Donald Trump was named the Republican nominee for president, leaving many baffled liberals searching for answers between the pages of books. In the final months of Trump’s first presidential campaign, weekly hardcover sales for Hillbilly Elegy shot up over 20,000** amid a sea of headlines crowing, “‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author offers insight on Trump’s appeal,” (AP) and, “New book gives insight into Trump fervor” (CNN). After Hillary Clinton’s shocking defeat on November 8th, weekly sales for the book tripled**.