The Write Stuff

April 6, 2007 — -- Author, author!

It's a title that applies to many of the '08 presidential contenders, including Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Obama's second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope," is enjoying its 23rd week on The New York Times' best-sellers list.

"A book is considered one of the things you should do if you want to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate," said Peter Osnos, founder of PublicAffairs Books, an independent publisher based in New York.

Osnos -- who has published books by former President Clinton; former Vice President Al Gore; Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.; and '08 candidate former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. -- said writing a book had become part of the modern presidential campaign.

"You have to have advertising. You have to have blogs. You have to have a Web site. … If you want to run for president, you have to run for president in every conceivable way and writing a book is part of it," he said.

Obama's book, which is part autobiography, part plan for America, is currently No. 5 on The New York Times' best-sellers list for nonfiction and has sold almost 1 million copies.

Like his first-quarter fundraising haul, Obama's book sales are closing in on those of his '08 Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Clinton's 2003 book, "Living History," which included details of her reaction to the Monica Lewinsky affair, sold 1.2 million copies to date, according to Neilsen BookScan, which tracks book sales in bookstores and online retailers. And her book on child-rearing, "It Takes a Village," was recently re-released this year 10 years after it was first published.

Political analysts say that books can boost a presidential bid.

"History has shown that a successful book can really elevate the candidates' chances," said Mark Halperin, a ABC News' political analyst and author of "The Way to Win."

"It allows the candidate to go on a book tour with the publisher paying for travel, and do basically what amounts to campaign events," Halperin said.

"And if the book sells well," Halperin said, "it's a way to validate their popularity by saying some voters have already voted with their wallets by buying the book."

In Obama's case, Halperin said, "it allowed him to go on a big book tour with a lot of television and public appearances."

"It has also allowed him to expose a lot of people to his ideas in a longer format that otherwise wouldn't have been possible," Halperin said. "It also made him some money."

Being a Political Celebrity Doesn't Guarantee a Best-Seller

Obama and Clinton aren't alone.

Most of the people seeking their party's nomination for the 2008 presidential race have gone low tech, churning out best-sellers of their own.

Some of the most successful politicians-turned-authors include GOP hopeful Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He has penned four books. McCain details his years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in his 2004 book, "Why Courage Matters: The Way to Live a Braver Life." It has sold 73,000 copies.

After his handling of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a leading GOP presidential candidate, wrote his best-seller "Leadership," which sold 63,000 copies.

But not all the books written by candidates were guaranteed best-sellers.

Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has written three books. When he first announced his candidacy for president during the 2004 campaign, Edwards released "Four Trials," which has sold only 12,000 copies.

In the book, the former trial lawyer recounts his most memorable trials, empathizing with the victims he represented in medical malpractice and personal injury lawsuits.

Edwards' most recent book, "Home: The Blueprint of Our Lives," has done a bit better, selling 20,000 copies.

But Edwards' "Our Plan for America," which he co-wrote with his '04 ticket-mate, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., tanked along with the Democratic Party's hope of taking back the White House in 2004.

Even the candidates' wives have caught the writing bug.

Elizabeth Edwards' book, "Saving Graces," told intimate details about her marriage, her battle with breast cancer and the tragedy of losing her oldest son in a car accident.

What may be the most underread book of the campaign belongs to Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. His book "The Making of an American Life" has sold only 300 copies, according to Nielsen's BookScan.

Books Give Voters an 'In-Depth Look'

Well read or not, in all of the books the candidates portray themselves favorably, highlighting key characteristics that they hope will earn points with voters.

Mitt Romney's book "Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games," which sold 11,000 to date, paints Romney as a problem solver, addressing scandals that besieged the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Even lesser-known candidates are jumping on the book-tour bandwagon. Publishers say having a book out may give a lesser-known candidate a dose of credibility.

"A book has a certain kind of stature still," PublicAffairs' Osnos said. "It's thought out so it gives you a kind of seriousness of voice."

Long-shot '08 Democratic contenders Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware are both in the midst of penning books now.

Dodd's first book will be released in September. Called "Letters from Nuremberg," it is an account of the Nuremberg trials based on letters from Dodd's father, who was a prosecutor there.

"Sen. Dodd sees the Nuremberg trials as an important historical moment and a reminder of America's moral authority in the world, particularly critical when compared to our standing in the world currently," according to the Dodd campaign's Christy Setzer.

Biden has been writing his book for a year and a half. There is no release date yet, but aides say it will be autobiographical.

"It'll certainly give people a more in-depth look," said Biden's press secretary, Margaret Aitken. "His wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident. He talks about that a little bit and how it shaped his life."

The Three Types of Books Politicians Write

Halperin, author of "The Way to Win," said most candidates used a basic formula in their books to either connect with voters through warmhearted stories or get across their policy ideas.

"Some of them are serious books with serious policy proposals and some of them are more an attempt to tell a biographical story," he said.

"There are three kinds of books that politicians usually write," Osnos said.

"There's the 'let me introduce myself' sort of book, sort of a kind of autobiography that people sometimes write," he said, noting McCain and Obama's books would fall into that category.

"Then there's the second kind, which is strictly a book about a topic that someone feels strongly about," said Osnos, pointing to former Vice President Al Gore's book "An Inconvenient Truth," which has sold more than 318,000 copies. "These books show you're a real expert."

Gore's first book, "Earth in the Balance," positioned him as an expert on the environment. It was published more than a decade ago and has sold millions of copies. With Gore and his environmental message enjoying a surge in popularity, Gore has a new book coming out in May.

Called "An Assault on Reason," the book is Gore's analysis of how the "politics of fear" and "blind faith" have been used to degrade democracy and create an environment hostile to reason, according to the publisher Penguin Books.

This won't be the first time that speculation about presidential ambitions and book tours have gone together.

In 1995, Colin Powell, then former secretary of state, national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs, released his memoirs in the midst of rumors and expectations about his own presidential intentions. His book "My American Story" was a runaway best-seller, though he did not run for the GOP nomination.

Osnos has published a new book by John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry, called "This Moment on Earth", about Americans who are trying to protect the environment. "Here's a man who was almost president and when that didn't work out, he threw all of his heart and soul into this book," said Osnos.

"The third kind of book contains 'what I would do if I were elected,'" said Osnos, pointing to former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore's successful 1992 book, "Putting People First."

The book was a series of policy papers, detailing how Clinton would shape the policies of the country. Clinton's campaign manager persuaded Osnos to publish the book when he was with a different publishing house.

"It came out just after the Democratic convention and was a huge best-seller, because it had a lot of stuff in it that people wanted to know the answer to," Osnos said. "After they won, of course, people now wanted to know what they were likely to do. So it made a lot of sense to do it as a book."

Though it's become politically fashionable, the tradition of wooing voters in print has been around a while.

John F. Kennedy won a Pulitzer Prize in the 1950s for his introductory book, "Profiles in Courage."

Publishers Hope to Cash In on '08 Candidates

Hoping to cash in on candidates' newfound popularity, some publishers are even re-releasing books written by candidates -- books that didn't sell well the first time.

Obama's 1995 book, "Dreams From My Father," has recently been re-released, now selling almost 600,000 copies.

But a candidacy doesn't necessarily translate into gold for the publisher.

Clinton's "It Takes a Village," describing the senator's policy vision for America's children, was re-released in 2006, but tanked, selling only 7,000 copies.

Book Power

Publishers argue that books create a special bond between readers and the candidates.

"A book has a connection between the author and a reader," Osnos said. "One of the reasons people like to write books is it gives them the opportunity to say what they want to say directly to you without an intermediary."

Unlike a campaign ad, which also promotes candidates directly to voters, Osnos argues "there's integrity in a book."

"People look at ads in a different way than they look in what's a book," he said. "An ad is promoting a product and a book describing an idea."

However, memoirs are also used to get out information that the candidate wouldn't want the media to find out first. For example, Obama's book details his past drug abuse, including experimenting with cocaine.

"I think in this case it will have the effect of inoculating him a little bit because he's getting out the information on his terms," said Halperin, noting however, that this kind of information could also serve as a road map for investigative reporters and rival campaigns who might try to examine his background.

"It's already produced some controversy," he said. "The Obama campaign itself is reading the book more carefully with an eye towards making sure they're ready to respond to questions."