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We'll see if the sisterhood prop up her book, to justify her time as a female in the job by buying her book. It won't be for her cracking style or any truths, just a litany of whinging. Oh well she's laughing all the way to the bank isn't she.
I know one pollie who, if he ever writes a book, will be a blockbuster, Rudds time as PM and his tearing down by Gillard.
It seems a little unfair to the reading public that Paul Keating never wrote his memoirs, while Kevin Andrews has written a 483-page treatise on making marriage work.
Lately just about every politician seems to be writing a book. It’s a case of “apres moi le deluge” after Labor’s six turbulent years in power. If you haven’t read recent works by Bob Carr, Kim Carr and Chris Bowen, you can hold out for upcoming launches of books by Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Greg Combet, Peter Garrett, Mark Latham, Gareth Evans … and Crikey has heard whispers that Kevin Rudd has found a publisher.
But pollies beware. The reading public is only so interested in books by parliamentarians, and some of these books are destined for the bargain bin (ping Kim Carr).
As a cautionary tale to wannabe politician-**bleep**-authors, Crikey has talked to publishers and examined sales to work out who should write a book, and who shouldn’t. Firstly, it helps to have been a prime minister with an army of supporters who will buy your book even if they never read it.
The biggest-selling book by a politician is John Howard’s autobiography Lazarus Rising, which sold 100,000 copies. That makes it a mass-market book, as opposed to most non-fiction political books which are niche (there’s a publishing mantra that “only cookbooks sell” when it comes to non-fiction in Australia).
Lazarus Rising also jettisoned the convention that only books by Labor politicians sell. While Labor politicians write more books than Coalition types, the latter usually sell better. (There’s a list of some of the more memorable books by politicians further down in Crikey today.)
Howard is working on a second book due out in October, a biography of the Robert Menzies era. Shona Martyn, publishing director of HarperCollins Australia, described The Menzies Era as a big solid hardback. “It’s not just a ‘ra ra everything Menzies ever did was good’ piece,” she told Crikey, although she noted Howard wanted to balance political history written by the Left.
Other PMs have also succeeded. Bob Hawke’s memoirs sold very well. Big things are expected from Julia Gillard’s My Story, due in October from Random House. Crikey hears it’s quite a read at 170,000 words. Some publishing insiders think it may sell almost as well as Lazarus. (It would want to, given rumours Gillard’s advance was between $400,000 and $600,000.)
Then there are big-sellers by non-PMs — the juicy Latham Diaries, in which former Labor leader Mark Latham spilled the dirt on how politics really works (and his Labor colleagues), sold 55,000. Peter Costello’s memoirs sold 42,000, while Tony Abbott’s Battlelines shifted a respectable 20,000 copies.
Are there more best-sellers in the works? Crikey has heard a rumour that Peter Garrett scored a $300,000+ advance for his book, due out from Allen and Unwin next year.
Wayne Swan’s book is out next month, also via Allen and Unwin. The Good Fight: six years, two prime ministers and staring down the great recession looks at how Australia coped with the GFC, plus Swan’s take on the Rudd/ Gillard ructions.
“You can either suck up the system and get a few little sinecures, or you can put it all down there in honest format and see how you go” — Mark Latham
Greg Combet’s memoir, The Fights of My Life, comes out in late July, commissioned by Louise Adler from Melbourne University Publishing (MUP). Adler says it focusses on his time pre-politics, as a union leader etc, although it includes his parliamentary career. While Combet writes on the Rudd/ Gillard fuss, he’s trying to lift politics and Labor culture in the book, Adler says.
But the reality is most books by politicians do not sell well.
