NEW YORK – It took less than a day for the Jan. 6 report to go from public release to the bestseller list on Amazon.com.
By late Friday, three editions of the Congressional inquiry into the 2021 US Capitol siege by supporters of then-President Donald Trump were among Amazon’s top 30 sellers. Issues include one with a foreword by MSNBC host Ari Melber, published by Harper Paperbacks; a Celadon Books publication with a foreword by New Yorker editor David Remnick and an afterword by Congressman Jamie Raskin, D-Md. and member of the House Select Committee; and a volume from Hachette Book Group’s Twelve imprint, co-published with The New York Times.
The 814-page document, released late Thursday evening, is out of copyright, can be posted by anyone, and is otherwise freely available on various government and media websites. Previous government publications, from the 9/11 commission report to Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s ties to Russian officials when he ran for president in 2016, have been best sellers. The 9/11 Report was even a finalist in 2004 for the National Book Award.
As with other government publications, publishers rushed to get their books out quickly to tap into the public interest. The three best-selling editions will be released in the next two weeks, along with books from Random House and Melville House Books.
The Jan. 6 report closes an 18-month investigation, which included more than 1,000 witness interviews and more than a million pages of original material. The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, blamed Trump for the insurrection, noting a “multiparty conspiracy” orchestrated by the president and his closest allies in an attempt to reverse his defeat of Democrat Joe Biden. Trump, a Republican, has already announced his candidacy for 2024.
