Tenet Book an Open Secret
By Craig Morgan Teicher and Charlotte Abbott -- Publishers Weekly, 4/30/2007 2:00:00 PM
You call this an embargo?
By now we're all used to carefully planned one-day laydowns being foiled by leaks. But George Tenet's At the Center of the Storm may have set a new standard in pre-pub exposure for the supposedly closely guarded contents of a controversial book. The book, in which the former CIA director recounts his experiences working with both the Clinton and Bush administrations and offers his take on 9/11 and the Iraq war, was published today by HarperCollins. A lengthy 60 Minutes interview last night was supposed to prime book buyers with revelations from the political tell-all. But by the time the show aired, Tenet's claims had not only been widely reported--they'd been repeatedly refuted. The embargo sprung its first leak two weeks ago. On April 16th Washington Post columnist Al Kamen wrote, "Tenet is not going to get too many Christmas cards from Vice President Cheney's office after they read At the Center of the Storm," and made several allusions to the book's content.
Then, last Friday, the 27th, The New York Times ran a detailed account of the book's contents based on "A copy of the book [that] was purchased at retail price in advance of publication by a reporter for The New York Times." The Times calls the book "by turns accusatory, defensive, and modestly self-critical." About Tenet's now-infamous "slam dunk" remark the Times quotes Tenet's book, in which he says: "I remember watching and thinking, ‘As if you needed me to say ‘slam dunk’ to convince you to go to war with Iraq,’" The Washington Post them ran another story based on the one in the Times..
On 60 Minutes last night, Tenet claimed he and his staff did the best they could at gathering intelligence pre-9/11, and also insisted the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used in the CIA's covert detention program yielded more valuable information than any other source. Ahead of that program, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice spent Sunday refuting Tenet's claims, appearing on CNN, NBC and CBS. Sen. John McCain went on Fox News Sunday to offer his take.
Of course, the only appearance that ultimately matters is book buyers showing up at the cash register. While Tenet's book is at number two on Amazon today, its long-term success is not considered a slam dunk. Washington D.C.’s Politics and Prose had sold 12 copies by lunchtime today, but owner Carla Cohen expressed doubt that the book will have a long life with average readers. "The reason we always sell so many of these books is that we’re near the center of where all the local TV stations are," she said. She anticipates a stronger response to the newly announced Hillary Clinton bio from Knopf, A Woman in Charge, by Carl Bernstein, which is slated to pub on 6/19 with a 350,000 copy first printing.
Tom Nissley, senior books editor at Amazon, noted that the book didn't break into the top 10 until the New York Times article ran on Friday. He added, "I think it will do quite well for us. People look to us right away for books like this. And as he says in the title, he really was in the center of the storm and is the most central figure to date to write an account like this."Nissley continued, "I think it will stay in news cycle after the weekend, and sales will peak relatively quickly. The first news was how he responded to the 'slam dunk' comment and his personal battles, but today there is more is about Gore assassination threat, and there seems to be more news beyond that—stories that haven’t been in the news before."
