No one said it would be easy to sell a book on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Not when nearly 20 already have been published (including "The Hillary Clinton Voodoo Kit: Stick It to Her, Before She Sticks It to You!"). Not when celebrity author Carl Bernstein's biography on the former first lady has arrived on store shelves three days earlier.
Authors Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. have had to labor not only to escape the shadow of Watergate reporting hero Bernstein but also to cope with the particular loathing the Clinton camp has reserved for their biography, "Her Way."
Clinton supporters have never forgiven Gerth as the journalist who wrote the first story on Bill and Hillary Clinton's Ozark Mountain vacation development, Whitewater. They have been trashing the duo, who both made their names at the New York Times, for allegedly carrying a grudge and, as Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines has charged, "rehashing for cash."
Clinton biography: In some copies of today's Calendar section, Taylor Branch was credited with writing "Eyes on the Prize." Juan Williams wrote "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965." Branch wrote "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63," among other books.
"Her Way" publisher Little, Brown won a round in the promotion wars when it got a lengthy adaptation of part of the book, on Clinton's Iraq war record, published in the New York Times Sunday magazine. The paper considered running another excerpt in the news pages but didn't reach an agreement with the publisher, which worried "it would steal too much thunder from the book," according to Times Editor Bill Keller.
When a Los Angeles Times reporter pressed him about his paper's decision not to run the news story, Van Natta snapped that the questions were "straight out of the Clinton talking points." The 42-year-old writer added, in explanation, "I am under a tremendous amount of pressure."
Unfortunately for the authors, the substantial heat around the book has not yet turned into fire at bookstore checkout stands. Nielsen BookScan reported that -- as of last Sunday, after 10 days in stores -- "Her Way" had sold 7,000 copies. That put it well behind Bernstein's "Woman in Charge," which sold 25,000 copies in its first 13 days. Neither biography was within fighting distance of Clinton's "Living History," the 2003 autobiography that sold 439,000 in its debut week. (BookScan tracks sales at about 70% of retail outlets.)
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- Mrs. Clinton Plans Book on Child, Family Needs Apr 23, 1995
