Thursday’s Books R Not Us Open Comments

Who remembers Jim Wright of Fort Worth, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives ?

The House ethics committee investigated Rep. Wright after a complaint by Newt Gingrich of Georgia, then a little-known but outspoken Republican congressman. While clearing Rep. Wright of several allegations, the committee cited him for five violations involving gifts and income from bulk sales of his 1984 book, “Reflections of a Public Man.”

The panel ruled that Fort Worth businessman George A. Mallick, a friend and business partner of Rep. Wright and his wife, Betty, had an interest in legislation before Congress. Therefore, the panel ruled, Mallick shouldn’t have provided housing to them, and the company co-owned by the two couples shouldn’t have provided Betty an $18,000-a-year salary and use of a car.

Also, the committee said Rep. Wright had sold his book in bulk on several occasions as a way to evade limits on honoraria and other outside income.

“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights.”         – Ronnie Coleman, Champion Body Builder

In the political publishing industry, however, the top “authors” have gamed the system entirely. The entire genre is a fraudulent mess of epic proportions.

I’m only 34, but I’ve been in the media and publishing space for quite some time, having written for pretty much every major right of center publication you could think of. I have no idea how long this massive grift has been occurring, but I can assure you it’s been going on for decades.

One such high profile example of political ghostwriting dates back to 1956, with Profiles In Courage, the 1956 volume that helped to establish the intellectual and political bonafides of John F. Kennedy.

and,

It’s a given that many of us in the space already wrote off the idea Noem would write any of her own book. But she has taken the laziness of politician “publishing” to new heights. She apparently didn’t proofread any of her book either, despite narrating the audiobook. Given the historic botch job, I’m glad that the public is starting to ask more questions about this incredibly sketchy operation.

The Kristi Noem saga has exposed an open secret about the political publishing industry: a tiny percentage of “authors” in the space write their own books. And those real authors are often smothered by fake authors with a machine in place to promote their fake autobiographies, which take time and opportunity away from those who have put in the work.

For politicians, I would estimate that maybe 1 percent write their own books. Some spend occasional time with their ghostwriter in order to best express their personality and ideas. Others, like Noem, just mail it in entirely, and have the ghostwriter rely upon public material from speeches and appearances.

As for your favorite TV personality/social media influencer? It would be generous to say that 5 percent write their own books. It is very rare to hear about cable news talking heads with faces full of delicately applied makeup putting in that kind of hard work.

These tasks are usually delegated to an underpaid 20-something, who may or may not be in routine contact with the “author” during the writing process.