Browsing through the political section of a US Book store is a disappointing task. The books themselves are rubbish. Hard to believe that the modern publishers are the end result of the same ones that published The Rights of Man and The Federalist Papers. Via TE, Stephen Pollard [UK] offers some insight:
The key to these books is the serialisation. They turn a book into a news story. And they provide the real money behind the mega-deal advances. I made some money from sales but almost all my advance came from the serialisation. The same will be true for Cherie Blair and Prescott.I don't recall seeing a lot of books serialised in the US, though some are, maybe the guaranteed blockbuster ones, like "Bush at War". I think it is the cable news networks and the book merchandising that follows on from them is what has lowered the tone of American political discourse.
