Did you know that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine wrote a book?
Well, they did, and it’s called Stronger Together. It sounds titillating: 256 pages chock full of Democratic policy proposals — what’s not to love?
Too bad for Clinton and Kaine, but it seems almost no one wants to read their book of dry policy proposals and life lessons. After a week on the shelves, the book has sold fewer than 3,000 copies. Generally, first-week sales account for about a third of total sales. No New York Times bestseller or Oprah’s Book Club for this kindling, apparently.
Clinton’s 2014 memoir, Hard Choices — the book whose title and cover photo looked suspiciously similar to Carly Fiorina’s 2006 memoir Tough Choices — sold 85,000 copies in its first week, though it was expected to do better.
Clinton’s other memoir (how many memoirs does one person get to publish?), Living History, published in 2003, sold six times as many copies in its first week as Hard Choices.
Clinton and Kaine are not alone in publishing policy books ahead of an election. In 2008, the Obama campaign published Change We Can Believe In, and in 1992, Bill Clinton and Al Gore published Putting People First.
A spokesman for Clinton and Kaine’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, told the Washington Examiner that the candidates received no advance for the book.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
