Bob Woodward’s revelatory book about the extent of dysfunction in the Trump administration, Fear, already has a million copies in print, and it hasn’t even gone on sale.
Leaks of portions of the book starting just six days ago led its publisher, Simon & Schuster, to return to press six times based on increased orders since its first estimates for a total of 1 million copies. The title will simultaneously appear as an ebook, and the number of electronic pre-orders wasn’t reported. The book’s official release is Sept. 11.
The book became available for pre-orders in July, and coverage surged as excerpts began to leak.
Coverage of these early passages came following guilty pleas by Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen and convictions on eight counts of the president’s one-time campaign manager Paul Manafort, as well as the release of recordings from the White House by former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman and her tell-all book.
The day after Fear stories hit the news, the New York Times published an anonymous op-ed the newspaper attributed to a senior Trump official, which echoed some of the excerpts, amplifying the impact of the book.