Politico Declares Biden ‘Bookstore Poison,’ Reveals Obama/Trump Author Skipping POTUS Joe Amid ‘Anemic’ Presidential Book Sales

Author Justin A. Frank previously wrote book explorations of the mental well-being of past Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, but he will not giving the same treatment to President Joe Biden.

Frank said he’s skipping the next chapter in his presidential series in a Politico report authored by Michael Schaffer, calling the president “bookstore poison,” with readers — and authors — not showing a whole lot of interest in books centered around the president.

Frank called Biden a fascinating subject, but said he was tired after his Trump on the Couch work nearly “killed” him, and he hasn’t seen much interest from the publishing world in a book on Biden.

“Some people have asked me about it, but I haven’t really been approached by any particular publishing house,” he told Politico. “So I don’t think there are people who want it. And I don’t know why.”

Politico reported on the “anemic” sales for some of the select works that have been released about the president, noting interest in books covering the whirlwind presidency of Donald Trump continue to grab more interest from readers.

From Politico:

Sales for even well-reviewed Biden books by respected authors have been anemic: New York magazine correspondent Gabriel Debenedetti’s buzzy book on the Biden-Obama relationship has sold just north of 1,000 hardcover copies since it dropped in September, according to numbers from Bookscan. My colleague Ben Schreckinger’s well-received, deeply reported 2021 book on the Biden family has a Bookscan number just above 4,000 in hardcover. And Associated Press reporters Darlene Superville and Julie Pace’s book on First Lady Jill Biden notched 1,867 in hardcover. (Bookscan numbers, which are considered relatively rough, measure cash-register sales, rather than units shipped by publishers; library, institutional, and bulk sales also don’t get included.)

A Biden ally claimed in comments to Mediate in response to the report that Biden is governing “normally,” accounting for less potential works for the “tabloid economy.”

“Joe Biden is normal. He promised to govern normally,” the ally said. “That’s not conducive to getting clicks or provoking people into terror-watching. What’s good for the American economy is often negative for the tabloid economy.”