More than 4 million books are published each year, with less than a quarter of those actually making it in print.

Unfortunately, some of those that actually do get published, including those by traditional publishing houses, should probably never have seen the light of day.

Former presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ 2025 book 107 Days is a good example. Harris writes about her failed campaign, blaming everyone from Joe Biden to the Democratic party to Donald Trump for what happened. The book reads like one long, continuous set of grievances and even supporters had trouble finding much good to say about it.

Now, former First Lady Jill Biden is about to launch her new book, View from the East Wing. She shares her experiences in the White House, including the 2024 election, the president’s cancer diagnosis, and their son Hunter’s legal issues. Excerpts quote Jill Biden as saying she wondered whether Joe was having a stroke during his horrendous debate performance or if he was drugged, and speculates that perhaps it might have been better to have publicly acknowledged the situation. Most of us came to that conclusion a long time ago.

While certainly there will be people who will buy these books because of their fondness (or hatred) of the author, it seems too many of these volumes are written to satisfy the author’s ego and the need to tell their side of a story from which most of us moved on long ago.

Don’t think this is just a Democratic habit. Just about every presidential aspirant on both sides of the aisle seems to have jumped on this train—from Chris Christie, Lindsey Graham, JD Vance, and RFK Jr on the Republican side to Josh Shapiro, Gavin Newsom, Chris Murphy, and Cory Booker on the Democratic one. While it’s obvious these are meant to pump up a campaign, most of these books are positive, rather than focusing on failures and assigning blame.

When I coach nonfiction authors, we talk about the reason they are writing their book, their projected audience, why they are the best person on the planet to write on this topic, and what action they want readers to take after reading the book.

There are many good reasons to write a nonfiction book—to build credibility, support your business, share expertise, support a cause—but writing a book to air your grievances isn’t one of them. Spare us, please.

Let us help your business rise to the top.

linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com