Wolff admits 'we didn't know what we had' with Fire and Fury

Michael Wolff has admitted neither he nor publisher Macmillan "knew what they had” when he delivered the manuscript of Fire and Fury, which exposed the inner workings of Donald Trump's chaotic White House and led to a worldwide media storm, with bookshops and the public alike scrambling for copies.

Speaking to the Bookseller about the experience, Wolff agreed he and his publishers "knew we had a book that would make some waves, generate some controversy” but there had been "no way to anticipate" what followed.

The exposé, which painted an unflattering portrait of Trump and his administration and even suggested the president never wanted to win the election, was catapulted to the top of the pre-order charts practically overnight after the Guardian leaked some of its contents ahead of publication, prompting legal action from Trump, who tried to sue for defamation and invasion of privacy. Following the legal threat, unprecedented demand saw Little, Brown’s orders for the title spike to 330,000 copies in less than a week, while Macmillan raced to print and distribute 1.5 million units and hundreds of thousands of e-book and audio editions were downloaded. In the UK, in spite of its high £13.99 digital price tag, the book  topped the weekly e-book ranking within just two days of sale. 

Stock shortages in bookshops only served to heighten demand, Wolff believes. "Usually when there are not books in the bookstore, that’s when you want to scream, it’s the worst thing that can possibly happen. But in this case it turned out to help the cause. Scarcity increased demand. So go figure,” he said.

"It’s amazing, it really is, for a book to have had this kind of effect,” he continued. "I have to remind people who have turned this book into a political event or a political act that it's a book."

He added: "It’s extraordinary. I’ve been going around saying to people, to all my many publishers now, ‘what do you think happened here?’ because one would like to do it again. And it’s hard to know: was it Donald Trump, was it just this hunger to understand this weird historic moment that we’re all in and sharing, or was it me? I kinda hope it was would me but I don’t know.”

Wolff had originally been signed by Steve Rubin at Holt & Co to write a completely different book about Fox News. However, just as he and his US publishers were ready to commit to the project, Wolff’s agent of 20 years, Andrew Wylie, told his client to present his new idea. 

“Andrew said, ‘just tell them [the idea’s] there. Tell them it’s a possibility.’ So literally we’re talking about this one thing, and then I said, ‘Hold on, I just gotta tell you that there exists the possibility….’ And then it was like, ‘Yeah ok, let’s not talk about anything else but that,'" Wolff said.

Branding Wylie "flawless", Wolff also heaped praise on his "extraordinary" publishers, including John Sterling at Macmillan who he said had been "extremely helpful" throughout the "incredibly challenging" process of researching the book - namely "not being thrown out of there". Wolff infiltrated the White House on the basis of conducting research for the sympathetic working title "The Great Transition: The First 100 Days of the Trump". 

© Jen Harris

Wolff said that he had never worried - "not for a second" - whether his publishers might decide against releasing the book after Trump issued the cease and desist legal threat.

“I literally never had a single second of doubt or concern. Quite the opposite,” said Wolff. "Every time the president would do something it was like, 'can god smile on one man this much?'

“It was totally one of those preposterous things. The president of the United States is going to try to stop the publication of a book? Yuh, good luck with that. The president of the United States is going to sue me for defamation and invasion of privacy - the one person on earth who cannot be defamed or whose privacy cannot be invaded? Yuh, go ahead."

Wolff believes the book's success showed "an appetite for stories that are about the things that people feel are central to their lives" and, to the contrary, in spite of Trump's attempt to quash publication, that it showed freedom of speech in the US to be in rude health.

"The president responded to this in the most conventional way - ‘you cannot publish this’ - in a world in which you can’t stop the publication of anything. This book is a perfect example of ‘there it is’. You just say it and millions of people buy it," Wolff said. 

Since the book took off last month, the journalist says he hasn't stopped since. "People ask, 'how has it changed your life?' The only way it’s changed my life is that I feel like a guy with a job," he said. "Soon enough I’m going to make this [press junket] stop. Then I can go back to work and think about the next book."

Although Wolff hasn't yet decided what his next book will be about, the TV series adaptation of Fire and Fury is in production. "I’ve heard it described as ‘The Crown' on drugs’. I think it sounds completely compelling and it’s a series I would like to watch," he said. "I would say I’m not in it. Maybe I get to sit on the couch in the cameo but other than that it’s really about this particular circumstance: What does Trump do? What does he do when he gets up in the morning? How does a man who knows nothing about anything respond to the most information-intensive job on earth?"

On the publicity trail last weekend, Wolff headlined a sold-out live event at Waterstones and made headlines in the UK's wider press for calling Tony Blair “a complete liar” on BBC One's Andrew Marr show. The former prime minister and his team have refuted claims made by Wolff that he was "sucking up" to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, for a role with the White House as “complete fabrication”. Wolff told The Bookseller of Blair's continued denials: "He is interpreting this conversation in a positive light for him ... You know, what’s he gonna say, ‘I’m a doop’?” 

Between April and May, Wolff will pack out venues of up to 2,500 seats on a whistle-stop tour of 20 US cities. One of his ultimate appearances to promote Fire and Fury will take place at Hay Festival, he said. To date the book has sold 151,032 copies sold for £2,356,160 through Nielsen in the UK and 901,111 copies through BookScan in the US.