About the business of publishing. In a few minutes, Publishers Weekly editorial director jim milliyet will join to discuss the upcoming publication of the house january 6th committee report. But first, heres some of the latest stories from the publishing world. In her new book about donald trump, confidence man, New York Times political reporter Maggie Haberman includes material from three sit down interviews with the former president. One exchange in particular has gotten a lot of attention in the wake of the fbis august raid on the former president s mar a lago. Haberman writes that trump, quote, demurred when i asked if he had taken any documents of note upon departing the white house, quote, nothing of great urgency. No, he said. She also writes that the former president was, quote, sometimes stunned at his own bakkers fervor, telling aides, quote, theyre f ing crazy. That book will be released on october the fourth. And longtime npr Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg published a book about her friendship with the late Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg. Politico headlined their review of that book. Quote, Nina Totenberg had a beautiful friendship with rbg. Her book about it is an embarrassment. The memoir, politico said, quote, shows everything thats wonderful about friendship and awful about insider culture. The reviewer, michael schaffer, writes that in dinners with ruth, miss totenberg failed because when youre a powerful reporter covering things that shape the life of the country, the matter of how you do your job is a lot more important than one lovely friendship or some quasi academic debate about a journalists true duties. And finally, in publishing, former republican congressman Denver Riggleman of virginia, who went to work for the january 6th committee, wrote a book with a behind the scenes look about tenure on the committee. Its called the breach. It came, according to news reports, as a surprise to members of that committee. And now more the january Six Committee. Its forthcoming and how the Publishing Industry is that reports release. Were joined by jim elliott, editorial director of Publishers Weekly. James elliott. As of this conversation, we dont know when the house january Six Committee is going to be releasing that final report. But if you go to amazon today, theres already half a versions of that report available for preorder. So what does that tell you about the Publishing Industrys expectation for americans appetite for to buy the book form of this report . Well, i think its obviously states that they think theres going to be a lot of interest that the discussions have covered a lot of ground. Theres a lot of time to digest. And i think, you know, having a print version and a let people, you know, take some time with with all the material and try to try to get better sense of whats happening. So what are the rules here when it comes to publishing, publishing, a congressional report . Well, basically, there are no rules. Obviously, its a its a Public Domain document. So, you know, virtually anybody can publish it. And, you know, in the internet age, im sure therell be various versions around in some sort of digital format. But the publishers, you know, they have a long history of doing these type of things. You know, some of your older viewers might remember the star report, which came out during the end of the clinton administration. And that an interesting episode in that it was when the internet was really you know, making great rounds and. This is the seminal information. And there was a dispute about whether, well you know, they could get this material for free on the internet they want. Why would they want it in a book . But three publishers went ahead and would publish a book, the star report, and they felt fairly well. So from then on out, you have depending on and on the material publishers, you know they keep an eye on this. The they do think its worthwhile to publish downloading documents becoming so much easier now than than then. Why publishers continue to think that the public will buy a book form rather than just downloading the pdf of january six report when it comes out because its easier to read a book than downloaded a pdf, but that while theres some very recent history about why it might be worthwhile, you know, the Mueller Report is that most recent one of these type of documents that have been put into books and the one of the Washington Post and scribners that Simon Schuster sold over 300,000 copies. And then we had skyhorse, the that had foreword ever so childish im sorry thats sold over 120,000. And then theres a small independent publisher housed here in brooklyn, melville house, they did a paperback version, so that was cheaper and they sold about 40,000 copies. So know you add it all up, you know to the knowledge that skyhorse and scribner Washington Post one they were bestsellers and they did put some context to it. You know, like in the end, she had to set up what what the whole Mueller Report was about, that sort of thing. So, you know, there is a history of willingness and a history of success, actually. So is the intro the way of distinguishing your report when it comes to these congressional that anybody can can make a book form . Is the idea here to have a wellknown intro and thats going to get more. Right, right, right. As as as i think, you know, the the ones that are in the works for or for the january six commission. One is coming from random house and adam schiff is doing, i believe, the forward or an epilog or the other. And his name is definitely attached it. And then one thats coming from macmillan that jamie raskin, the new yorker are adding stuff. Im not sure its not clear exactly what the new yorkers role is going to be. I believe theyre going to have some commentary on it. So, you know, its a way to try to separate yourself a little bit from from the other competing materials that are out there. And i do think it, again, having somebody you trust, i think everybody now knows who adam schiff is. You know, gives a bit of cachet. What about targeting your towards a specific audience . You mentioned skyhorse in one of the previous congressional reports with the skyhorse publication, the version that on sale on amazon right now that you can preorder a foreword by former trump speechwriter daron beatty. Right. Well, they they know who their audience is. So, yes, youre absolutely right. I mean, you know, i guess you could call it signaling, if you will, who you are, who, you know, youre getting in collaboration with. So its its you know. And thatll help you gin up some publicity. Its it also puts to some degree, it puts the face on the book, if you will. So im not sure schiff or raskin will do any interviews for this, but they might. And, you know, every book needs a spokesperson for you. Sometimes its the publisher, you know, almost always its the author. So itll be interesting in this case, you know, who who who does the talk shows . Who comes on your show, you know, to the side, you know, to talk about why they decided to get to get into this. When it comes to the harpercollins edition afford their buy msnbc Legal Correspondent ari melber the. When it comes to the costs of printing these books is that the publishing houses are are paying the money to have a name forward written. They dont have to pay for the congressional report itself. Yeah. Well thats the how. And its interesting that you bring up the paper situation because, again, if any of you were watchers of viewers probably aware that, you know, last there was a lot of problems with the Book Publishing supply chain was a paper shortage still going on now its not as severe as it used to be. So i there was a little bit of concern about whether therell be enough production capability and enough paper around to get these sort of interesting books done. But obviously that they found a way. And, you know, their determination to go ahead, do this, i think speaks volumes for the kind of interest they think theres going to be there. I mean, look at what i think the ratings that cnn and everybody else whos showing the showing of the hearings you know, they were very well. So, you know, i think the publishers are starting to piggyback on interest. What is Publishers Weekly been able to find out about the print runs of the various publishing houses for the january six report . Whenever it does drop . Yeah. Well, unfortunately, they havent told us yet, but well be well be keeping an eye on it. And i think i think youll see a selling comparable to the Mueller Report. I mean, i think thats probably almost a low bar. I mean, like 300,000 and that the post will have no idea. I mean, thats really an impressive number. Youre parents you know, sometimes you do have as you pointed out, a lot of competing titles out there. I dont know if one will hit 300,000 by the quick math. You know, they got pause. They got close to 500,000 copies sold before. And im not much theyre predicting going but would think that you know 500,000 copies sold is probably a reasonable target. You mentioned the the star report Mueller Report. What makes a hit versus a flop when it comes to these congressional reports being put into a book form . Well, thats thats a good question. And i think it goes to the whole nature of you know trying to predict what books are going to work and what arent you can diversify the right too much away from this. But we just had the Penguin Random house trial and a lot of publishers want one on this and talk about how hard it is to predict whats going to work and whats not going to work. And these type of things, though i do think, you know, there is some sense of, you know, versus wrong or, you know, i want to find whats on my side, want to you know, i want to understand the argument a little bit better. And i know its going to be a spectacle, and im sure. But you know, like most books, how much is actually going to get read and so its going to get read cover to cover. I dont think, you know, thatll be the case you know, in too many instances. But, you know, people want to have it and refer to it. I mean, this is going to be an ongoing process, right . Because i think its a contract of im wrong here, john. This is sort of like the preliminary report because i know theres a couple publishers, theyre standing by wanting to publish, like a final, final version. So, you know, this is maybe just, you know, sort volume one, maybe itll be a volume two or a volume three. Well, theres versions at this point of the individual hearings at this point. And as you and i are talking, theres been eight hearings so far. And you can buy the book form of each one of those hearings. Also, if you go to amazon, you can find those as well. Right. Right. So, you know and you know. It is easy now, especially with amazon to do a digital and its not hard to either. I mean, it goes to that whole self publishing environment that sprung up, you know, over the last 10 to 12 years or so. So its really easy. Do this in terms of what the quality of some of these may be. You know, im not sure that obviously, if youre coming from an established publisher like, the ones youve talked about, you know what youre going get. You know what . Depending on what else you want to how much you want to get involved, know by, you know, a cheap version. Im sure itll be fine, but, you know, its buyer beware. You mentioned quality. I wonder, i dont know how many of these reports youve read over the years, but i wonder your thoughts on the writing itself when these reports come out, if theyre written in a different narrative style by the committees, knowing that these things are likely to be bestsellers, are likely to be hits, as it were. Does it change the way that these reports have been written, or has that changed over the years . Not to my knowledge. I mean, i really like that, you know, the people that are assigned do the kind of an epilog or forward or Something Like that. Thats what sort sets the tone and attendance. That definitely from publisher to publisher on how much they want to tinker with the actual text itself. I think for the most part, they they try to stick as best they can to the actual document and then the actual wording that was used in the here. And i wonder when it comes to the final report, though, if you think the Committee Staff themselves or whoever writes this report before gets released to the public, if you think that that that knowing that these things are likely to be hits that they change the way that they write these report to try to make them more thrilling or more interesting or more read and not sure about that because you could be right. I mean, im sure its im sure its a back of their head that, you know, this is a historic document. So even if its, you know, something for the record or something that will be available to the public, you dont want to come off looking like. You know, youre youre youre making out, you know, a well thought out argument. So, yeah, i would think thats definitely something that you have to have, you know, top of mind about. You know, this sort of a legacy type of thing. Thinking back over the years to these various reports and in modern times, we can go as far back as the Senate Watergate report. Youve mentioned the mueller, the star report, the 911 report. Is there a report that you can remember had expectations of being a bestseller or that was kind of a flop, you know, not. I think the starr report was probably the one that didnt do as well as some people thought. I mean, there is this, you know, tension between too much information and not quite enough information. I think by the time that starr report came out, people were kind of tired. It and it was just sort of the same old story. Right. I mean, i think people will fundamentals very clearly, you know, here the six i mean, theres so many different roads to go down and so many things to explore. I mean, theres a lot of a lot of a lot of meat to get into other than, you know, lets face it, the star report. I mean, was, you know, romance, thriller in some ways. And i think people kind of knew how ended. And then when it comes to distinguishing these, weve talked a bit about how many there out there. Its a for these reports, but i guess for the Publishing Industry in general having a good cover art when it comes to these reports. If you look at the New York Times version, their cover art has shattered glass and, broken doors inside the capitol. Theres a hint of a United States flag through the shattered. I wonder your thoughts on trying to get the catchy cover art on these reports. Well its something that publishers do thats their specialty. So and as we alluded to before, they know who their audience is. I mean i mean, i have to think most of the people buying are going to be on the left hand side of the political equation. So, you know, youre trying to draw draw attention to to the art. The main something in the book and Something Like we just described. You know, i all that right into what the readers are looking for and itll be interesting to see, you know, how the sky wars will engage in terms of well which track people who know where defending president former President Trump will look for there that you can maybe poke holes and remind folks about skyhorse and their stable of authors who folks who dont know who what skyhorse is. Well, skyhorse started off as sort of a general publisher, but the last several years theyve published authors to a lot of the mainstream publishers. When they published the woody allen book, when. Hachette dropped it first for various reasons. So theyve taken up the man that they published published a Robert Kennedy book on the pandemic so that theyre they take it up some books that again, other mainstream publishers have or havent published and theyre doing it of because they think its important. You know, to have their freedom to publish or they they want to publish as many different types of views as as as possible, like, you know, i cant say that a lot of people in publishing agree with their stance, but some do. I mean, you know, as a defender of Free Expression and i guess another last minute or two here, explain what Publishers Weekly will be looking for here in the of the january 6th report being published. Whats whats sort of your job as track this . Well, you know, were going to were going to track you alluded to before you know how theyre doing. Were not thats sort of what were going to do. Wont reviewing of will you know tracking of the sales rates going out of sort of sort of the winners or losers not the interesting know i i hope my prediction. 500,000 you know comes true and you know the the industry event could use a little jolt. So im not sure this is that publishing has had a couple of good years this year has been a little slower than the previous two years. Well, lets think then you bring people into the bookstores. You never know what will i mean that you know, thats what makes publishing publishing. You never really sure what a bestseller is going to be till till it hits the list in bookstores probably not unhappy that this dropping as the Holiday Season is about to begin. Right i think so yeah im not sure i need a holiday present is but we have an uncle out there whos interested in politics could be the perfect book. Jim elliott is the editor editor, director of Publishers Weekly. Always appreciate your time. Thanks so much. A pleasure to be here. And youre watching and listening to the about Books Program podcast each tuesday of new books are published. Heres a recent sampling in their latest book, in their bestselling killing series, bill oreilly and Martin Dugard focus on the deaths of trio of american icons. Elvis presley, john lennon and muhammad ali. The book is killing the legends the lethal danger of celebrity. And in the future is now Canadian Broadcasting Corporation host and science correspondent bob mcdonald explores how current energy, technologies and the lessons of the Global Pandemic can be used to solve the climate crisis. And Fox News Contributor joe concha offers his assessment of president bidens time in the white house. In his book come on, man, the truth about joe bidens terrible, horrible, no good, very bad presidency. And each week, National Publications publish their reviews of newly released books. Heres two from the wall street journal almanac of american politics Founder Michael barone takes a look at the book democracys data by Colgate University history professor dan buck. Quote, the book promises to reveal the hidden stories in the us census and how to read them and deliver some tales. Barone writes. But his text, he says, is, alas, sprinkled with academic. We read about misgendering and transgender people and about latin x, a term rejected, he writes by almost all those it is intended to label also from the street journal, barton swain reviewed smart brevity. The new book from jim vandehei. Mike allen and roy schwartz, cofounders of the news site axios. The book subtitled the power of saying more with less is written in axios is journalistic style with one or two sentence leads and paragraphs labeled why it matters and the big picture. In his review, swain quote maybe the axios style is the future of written communication. If so, please kill me. The authors, he says, show they can write lean and punchy, copy but their own copy, he says, isnt exactly top drawer quality. Youll see these books and the authors featured in the near future on book tv and coming up later on book tv. Its our Weekly Program this will feature a former Trump Administration trade policy Office Director peter navarro. His book is titled taking back trumps america, and hes interviewed by washington examiner, senior Political Correspondent david drucker. Heres a preview. This is the second book of, what its going to be eventually a trilogy on the Trump Administration and this this focus is primarily this phenomenon under reagan, where personnel is policy, where who you put in the white house can either be good or bad, depending on whether theyre in sync with the president. So thats thats part of the focus of this. And, of course, prospectively and at the title, taking back trumps america, obviously is also oriented towards the future. A reminder that afterwards airs every sunday at 10 p. M. On book tv, and finally each month on, our indepth program, book tv, brings an author for a deep dive into his or her body of work. This month, we interviewed tv host abrams media founder dan abrams. He talked about the state of the us legal system and americas legal history. His books include lincolns last and alabama v king. That interview is available right now on our website at book dawg. Well, thanks for joining us for about books, a program and a podcast produced by cspans tv. Book tv will continue to bring you author interviews and publishing news, and you can get this and all of our podcasts on our cspan now app and you can always watch online on apple tv dot org. Okay. Welcome. Uh, our audience in the classroom and our audience. To a class on the war in ukrain