At precisely 11 p.m. EST on November 4, 2008, the polls in California closed and the networks rushed to call its 55 electoral votes for Barack Obama, putting him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Senator Obama has become president-elect of the United States of America.
Obama's whirlwind two-year odyssey across the American landscape had hit pay dirt. The electoral landslide has left some shocked, but most ecstatic—especially publishers who have been out front on the Obama phenomenon from the beginning.
One of those publishers is Margo Baldwin of Chelsea Green, whose publication of Obama's Challenge last summer caused a firestorm in the industry when she offered the book, pre-publication, exclusively through Amazon's Book Surge program, much to the consternation of Barnes & Noble and many independents. “[Author] Bob Kuttner, early on, saw that Obama was the only one who had the potential to become a truly transformative leader,” says Baldwin, foreshadowing what former secretary of state Colin Powell would say months later, “the way Lincoln and Roosevelt were transformative presidents. When he brought us this book this spring, we both took a huge gamble that Obama was going to win, not only the nomination but the presidency. At first we were going to wait until the election was over to get the book out, but decided that it was important that the book be out before the election, to let people know what was at stake, including Obama supporters.”
In retrospect, how does she look back on the B&N controversy? “I feel like we made the right decision at the time,” says Baldwin. “Given the urgency and the options, we had to get the book out that fast. Would I do it exactly the same the next time? Probably not.”
Another publisher who also jumped on the bandwagon early was Mitch Rogatz, president of Triumph Books in Obama's hometown of Chicago. He had success with a photography book on Obama called The Rise of Barack Obama. The surprising thing about Triumph is that it is primarily a sports publisher, but has, over the years, also put out timely books on Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Britney Spears and even the Backstreet Boys. “This election,” says Rogatz, “with the strong and varied personalities intertwined, many different compelling story lines and, most importantly, its historic impact, presented us with a publishing opportunity we felt obligated and excited to aggressively pursue.”
Rogatz, who has published many “instant” Super Bowl books, is about to do the same with Obama's election. “It's a good analogy. This [election] is similar to a Super Bowl or World Series book in terms of the intense time pressure to pull it all together,” says Rogatz. America Speaks by ABC News and USA Today shipped to market two days after the final election results and includes photos and coverage of the final day and the celebration in Chicago's Grant Park.
With the election of President Obama, publishers of all stripes are getting into the act. There is every conceivable kind of Obama title out there: biographies, picture books, First Lady books, humor, even an Obama recipe book. See for yourself.
Post-Election TitlesYes We Can: Barack Obama's History-Making Presidential Campaign, photographs by Scout Tufankjian (powerHouse; Dec.)“This is the first, and we think only, Obama book in pictures to feature the main player in this historic election—the American people.”—Daniel Power, CEO55,000-copy first printing; extensive press campaignObama Menu: Dinners with Barack Obama (TCB Cafe Publishing/TasteTV; Jan.)Campaign fund-raiser foodBarack Obama: The Voice of an American Leader by Joann F. Price (Greenwood; Jan.)Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs by Deborah Willis and Kevin Merida (Amistad; Oct. 28)“This is the only book to chart the historic campaign through photographs, images that show Obama's 18-month odyssey in mesmerizing and inspiring detail, from the multicultural, multigenerational crowds that he so uniquely fired up to his interaction with fellow Democrats, would-be voters and his family.” —Dawn Davis, editorial director40,000 copies in print; publicity; Internet marketing campaignWhat Obama Means... for Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future by Jabari Asim (Morrow; Jan.)“Jabari Asim is the first writer to put the emergence of Barack Obama into context with our culture and our politics. His book is about who we are today as much as it is about Obama.” —Henry Ferris, executive editor50,000-copy first printing; national broadcast and print media campaign; 25-city radio satellite tourDeciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme by Calvin Trillin (Random; Dec. 2)“The definitive epic narrative poem on the 2008 presidential election from primaries to Election Day.” —Bob Loomis, v-p/executive editor40,000-copy first printing; national TVLetters to President Obama, edited by a team of professors from the University of Michigan and Cornell University (Skyhorse; Apr.)Skyhorse is encouraging Americans to submit letters for consideration by visiting www.letterstopresidentobama.com.50,000-copy first printing08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail by Michael Crowley and Dan Goldman (Crown; scheduled)National publicity including 20-city radio satellite tourAmerica Speaksby ABC News and USA Today (Triumph, Nov.)30,000 copies after second printingMichelle Books
Michelle by Liza Mundy (S&S)
“This is the [first] biography of the soon-to-be First Lady out there and it dives very deeply into her life, from growing up in Chicago to graduating from Princeton and Harvard Law to falling in love with Barack and managing a family and high-profile career.” —Priscilla Painton, v-p/editor-in-chief
60,000 copies in print after two printings; five-city tour; national publicity
Michelle Obama: First Lady of Hope by Elizabeth Lightfoot (Lyons Press; Nov. 26)
75,000-copy paperback first printing; author publicity
Michelle Obama: An American Story by David Colbert (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group; Jan.)
Original paperback biography for 8—12-year-olds
100,000-copy paperback first printing; 10,000-copy hardcover first printing
Already in Print
The American Journey of Barack Obama by the editors of Life magazine (Little, Brown/Life, Oct. 7).
Photos from the magazine along with essays by Gay Talese, Andrei Codrescu and Fay Weldon, among others, and a foreword by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
An American Story: The Speeches of Barack Obama, a Primer by David Olive (ECW; Oct.)
“Captures 21 of Barack Obama's best speeches and adds substantial commentary about them, and him as well.”
—Jack David, copublisher
15,000-copy first printing
Say It Like Obama: The Power of Speaking with Purpose and Vision by Shel Leanne (McGraw-Hill; Sept.)
“Say It Like Obama examines Obama's communication techniques and how they are critical to his ability to motivate, inspire and lead. This covers his major communications from the 2004 Democratic National Convention to the 2008 DNC in August.”
—Mary Glenn, editorial director
28,000 copies in print; major national publicity
Obama: The Essential Guide to the Democratic Nominee, edited by Naftali Bendavid and the staff of the Chicago Tribune (Triumph; Sept.)
15,000-copy first printing
Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise, with a foreword by Barack Obama (Crown; Sept.)
Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of the Transformative Presidency by Robert Kuttner (Chelsea Green; Aug. 28)
“Bob Kuttner, who has studied transformational presidents, knows that it takes a huge crisis to push someone beyond the conventional and supposedly safe course to define a new political reality.”
—Margo Baldwin, president/publisher
50,000 copies in print; renewed author promotion
The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield (Thomas Nelson; Aug.)
“Obama's faith... plays an important role in his approach to politics.” —Joel Miller, v-p/publisher
80,000 copies in print; national TV/radio
Barack Obama for Beginners: An Essential Guide by Bob Neer, illus. by Joe Lee (Steerforth; July)
The Rise of Barack Obama, photos and text by Pete Souza (Triumph; July)A total of 120 b&w photos of the next president.
85,000 copies in print
Yes We Can: A Biography of Barack Obama by Garen Thomas (Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends; June)
For children ages 9—up.
Barack Obama: A Biography by Joann F. Price (Greenwood, May)
Barack Obama: The New Face of American Politics by Martin Dupuis and Keith Boeckelman (Greenwood; Dec. 2007)
Part of the Women and Minorities in Politics series, this explores Obama's early political career.
Obama: From Promise to Power by David Mendell (Harper hardcover, Aug. 2007; Avon; Sept.)
Written by a reporter for the ChicagoTribune who has covered Obama since his early days in the Illinois state senate.
Hopes and Dreams: The Story of Barack Obama by Steve Dougherty (Black Dog & Leventhal; Feb. 2007)
To be revised and updated by Inauguration Day.
Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006) by Barack Obama (Crown)
Together, these titles have almost five million copies in print in both hardcover and paperback.