Books Lose Money : Little Profit or Prestige in Kiss-Tell

As it stirred a tempest in official Washington, David A. Stockman’s “The Triumph of Politics” was making history of a different sort in the New York publishing world.

The former budget chief’s caustic memoir of life in the Reagan Administration bestrode the best-seller lists for five weeks in 1986, reflecting glory on publisher Harper & Row, which had paid Stockman $2.4 million. But, on the sixth week, sales died, leaving the book so deeply in the red that it became a monument to the risks of the kiss-and-tell genre.

The fate of “Triumph” is much on the minds of publishers today as they contemplate the new generation of White House tell-alls, led by former White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan’s hot-selling “For the Record.”

News Coverage Can Hurt

Despite their pyrotechnic debuts, these books are usually money losers, victims of the public’s short attention span, the unpredictable effects of wide news coverage and expenses that usually include hefty advances to their authors. If Regan’s book makes money, it will be among only two or three profit makers among the seven White House kiss-and-tells written during the Reagan Administration, publishers say.

Success with such books “is harder than shooting the first cataract of the Nile,” said Howard Kaminsky, president of Hearst Trade Book Group in New York.

Red ink isn’t the only pitfall for publishers of kiss-and-tell books. As authors risk besmirched reputations, so do publishers. That can be bad for business.

“Publishers have always done Washington books not just for the money but because it was a clean, elegant business and would bring good publicity and maybe other book proposals,” said Harriet Rubin, who was editor of Stockman’s book. “Now, it’s gotten kind of tawdry.”

Fewer Bids for Books

Some publishers “are already pulling back,” she said, pointing to a falloff in the number of houses that have bid recently for such gossipy memoirs.

Risk, of course, is an unavoidable part of the book trade. With every new project, publishers are betting that revenues from sales and serializations will exceed their advances, promotion and advertising costs. But, in this genre, the risks are unusual.

The Washington luminaries and First Family members who write such volumes make special demands that usually include advances of $250,000 to $1 million. In marketing such books, publishers must capture the interest of more than just the tiny audience interested in politics and government.

Even if they succeed, readership interest won’t last long: The sales life of gossipy political books is often four to eight weeks, compared to six months or more for many other kinds of books.

Because their news tidbits are so rapidly absorbed by the public, such books have little value as paperbacks.

Only with news coverage will the books sell well. Yet, there is a danger that the news coverage will focus on some aspect of the work that will blight sales. “You’ve got to have that coverage, yet it’s completely beyond your control,” said Marie Arana-Ward, a senior editor for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, publisher of Regan’s book.

Editors routinely scour their manuscripts to find nuggets that they can use to promote their works. They are not always easy to recognize. Although editors at Harcourt Brace recognized the appeal of Regan’s disclosures on astrology at the White House, editors at Charles Scribner’s Sons had no inkling that the press would latch on to the tidbit that former White House spokesman Larry Speakes put words into Reagan’s mouth at the Reykjavik summit meeting.

Quote-Fabrication Issue

Speakes’ “Speaking Out” had been on bookstore shelves for three weeks and had been reviewed at least three times before the quote-fabrication issue arose, Peter Osnos, associate publisher at Random House, said.

It remains to be seen whether Speakes’ book will be hurt or helped by the criticisms of his inventing quotes, or by the presence of Regan’s better-selling book.

Although Scribner’s expresses confidence in Speakes’ book, it has ordered a second printing of only about 10,000 copies, said Linda Speckman, book buyer for a wholesaler called The Distributors in South Bend, Ind. “That doesn’t suggest too much confidence in the outlook,” she said.

If news coverage took a jarring turn for Speakes, it broke completely the wrong way for former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Michael K. Deaver’s “Behind the Scenes.”

Deaver apparently believed when he started the volume that he would be acquitted of the federal perjury charges he faced in connection with a congressional investigation of his alleged influence peddling. But Deaver was found guilty in December, 1987.

Couldn’t Give Interviews

When he was ready to give book interviews, his lawyers held him back because the book’s scheduled publication date of Feb. 25 was 10 days before his scheduled sentencing.

The book was generally panned by reviewers, and the 35,000 copies that were printed were not nearly sufficient to make back Deaver’s $500,000 advance for the publisher, people in the industry say. Jay Acton, agent for a number of Washington authors, estimated Morrow’s losses on the book at $400,000, not including the publisher’s promotional costs.

Publishers must wrestle, too, with the issue of whether to sell magazine serial rights in advance of the book’s publication. Most in the trade seem to believe that serialization whets the public’s appetite for the book rather than extinguishes it. But the strategy can backfire.

Although many publishers think the 20,000-word serialization of Regan’s book helped sales, some believe that Time’s 40,000-word serialization of former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr.’s 1984 “Caveat” gave the public more than it wanted to know.

“I think the excerpts really creamed that book,” Lynn Goldberg, the New York publicist who handled Regan’s book, said.

Publicity Didn’t Help

A wildfire of advance publicity was not enough to make Stockman’s book profitable for Harper & Row. “Triumph” received the best possible advance publicity when journalist William Greider disclosed Stockman’s disillusionment with Reagan in an Atlantic magazine article.

Before publication, the book was described in newspaper articles, and Newsweek carried lengthy excerpts. But, if shock value worked in Stockman’s favor, his book may have been hurt by its concentration on complex policy issues and by Reagan’s high public standing, some publishers say.

“People may have thought Reagan deserved a bit of a better break at that point in his Administration,” Laurence J. Kirschbaum, president of Warner Books, said.

After five weeks of robust sales, demand stopped. Returned books dribbled in for months, bringing net sales to about 180,000 copies on a total printing of 325,000, Osnos of Random House estimated. About two-thirds of the paperback copies were returned, he said.

$1-Million Loss Seen

Although Harper & Row says sale of overseas rights have brought the book close to break-even, many others in the business contend that the losses were considerable. Warner’s Kirschbaum estimates that Harper lost $500,000 to $1 million on the project.

In bidding for rights to a book by a prominent Washington figure, publishers often are not sure what kind of book they will ultimately get and may not have enough influence to get the author to write the book their way. Regan was asking publishers to bid on his work based on a 20-page summary that made no mention of the First Lady’s astrological interest and gave little clue as to how he would treat fellow aides or the First Family.

“We thought it would be highly partisan, and we didn’t know about the astrology nonsense,” said Jonathan Segal, vice president of Random House’s Times Books unit. “We were doubtful.”

The bidding was tepid, in fact, until Chairman William Jovanovich of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich offered a winning $1-million advance, in an effort to make a splash for a house that rarely joins in such high-stakes bidding contests. The previous bid was for about $500,000, industry executives say.

Publishers have no sure-fire way of getting the best promotion for their book, which is a comment--kind or cutting--from the President or First Lady.

Presidential Criticism Helps

President Reagan gave a boost to the Regan and Speakes books by lashing out at them; Crown Publishing executives maintain that Reagan daughter Patti Davis’ “Home Front” sold better after news reports that Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin had canceled interviews with Davis at Nancy Reagan’s urging. Crown says it sold 70,000 of the 90,000 copies of Davis’ book that it printed, enough to make back Davis’ $50,000 advance and turn a profit.

Publishers sometimes try to promote their books by throwing a veil of secrecy over the book before publication.

Harcourt Brace limited its distribution of the Regan manuscript and made those who read it pledge not to disclose its contents. But the book’s promotion got a boost when Newsweek broke the news about Mrs. Reagan’s interest in astrology a week before the appearance of the book and its excerpts in Time magazine.

Even publishers who succeed in marketing their kiss-and-tell books may have second thoughts.

Attack Surprised Editors

Scribner’s executives have acknowledged that they were taken aback when Speakes came under attack for making up quotes. Harcourt editor Arana-Ward says she was “uneasy” when senior White House officials complained to her at a recent Washington party that Regan’s book would hamper the proper functioning of the White House.

Some in the trade say the unpleasantness of this role and the questionable profitability of the books have reduced the number of those bidding for such titles.

Only a small number of houses bid for Regan’s book, notably not including Harper & Row. Bidding was sluggish for former Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger’s memoirs until Warner Books jumped the bidding with a winning $500,000 offer, said editor Rubin, now with Doubleday & Co.

The books have, of course, often made life difficult for their authors as well.

Speakes Lost Job

Patti Davis has not been in the company of Ronald and Nancy Reagan since the book; Speakes, a spokesman without credibility, lost the Merrill Lynch public relations job that paid him $250,000 a year--about the amount he received from Scribner’s.

Regan has endured bitter public denunciations, including several delivered face to face as he promoted his book on television. He displeased some in the audience of “The Phil Donahue Show” (“Leave our First Family alone . . . .”) and CBS interviewer Kathleen Sullivan, who accused Regan of sexism for noting that Nancy Reagan stammers when upset.

For the authors, “there is a great price to be paid in personal reputation,” said Sheila Tate, former press secretary to Mrs. Reagan.

Loftier Tone Expected

That’s one reason some are already predicting that the rash of kiss-and-tells may be nearing an end. The next crop of Reagan Administration insider accounts--including those expected from Secretary of State George P. Shultz and the Reagans themselves--is likely to strive for a loftier tone, publishers and literary agents say.

Agent Jay Acton said that several Administration figures he has approached about memoirs have put their book plans on hold after watching the public thrashing suffered by Regan. “Nobody wants to take the heat he’s taken,” Acton said.

THE BOOK ON REAGAN

The seven kiss-and-tell books of the Reagan Administration.

Copies Yr. Author Title Advance in Print ’84 Alexander Haig Jr. “Caveat” $300,000 100,000 ’86 Patti Davis “Home Front” $50,000 90,000 ’86 David A. Stockman “The Triumph $2.4 million 325,000 of Politics” ’88 Michael K. Deaver “Behind $500,000 35,000 the Scenes” ’88 Michael Reagan “On the Outside * 100,000 Looking In” ’88 Larry Speakes “Speaking Out” $250,000 110,000 ’88 Donald T. Regan “For the Record” $1 million 400,000

* Not available

Source: Publishers, industry estimates.