Alex Shephard looks at the question of whether book publishers should put out the inevitable Trump memoir. Though it would likely be lucrative, the potential consequences could dissuade the big five publishing houses from touching the book. As Shephard writes: “Increased labor activism and demands that publishers live up to their stated values have been two of the biggest stories in publishing during the Trump era—a larger publisher putting out a Trump memoir would lead to a surge in both.”
Maggie Haberman has secured a deal with Penguin Press to write “a definitive and fascinating account of Donald Trump, his life and his presidency,” Associated Press reports.
At Columbia Journalism Review, Mathew Ingram rounds up what we know about the possibility of Trump starting his own media venture, recalling similar speculations back in 2016 and failed attempts to break into the industry by Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. According to Axios’s Mike Allen, the president has told friends he wanted to create a company “to clobber Fox News and undermine the conservative-friendly network.” But, Ingram writes, “whether he can convert his fans into paying subscribers—and how serious he is about doing so—is very much an open question.”
Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, the first in a planned trilogy, will be published in fall 2021. At LitHub, Emily Temple offers ten “cool facts” about the project.
Noting that “we are not quite yet out of the dark,” Roxane Gay has put together a post-election reading list “to bring some light into your world,” including Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness, Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play, and Nate Marshall’s Finna.
