Book publishers clamor for Mueller report, the 'most anticipated publication in American history'

Barr's letter on Mueller's report.
(Image credit: Jim Bourg/ Reuters)

There is still a great question of if Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full report into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia will ever be made public —the attorney general, in his summary, only included four partial quotes — but that isn't stopping book publishers from working themselves into a frenzy over the manuscript. Skyhorse Publishing, Scribner, and now Melville House have all announced plans to publish the report: "We've had an ISBN and a cover design for almost a year now," Melville House's co-founder, Dennis Johnson, told Publishers Weekly.

Skyhorse plans to release the Mueller report with an introduction by attorney Alan Dershowitz within three weeks of the report being made public. "We know that making the Mueller report instantly available will be both a public service and good business," Skyhorse's president, Tony Lyons, told PW. Scribner's edition, which would include some of The Washington Post's reporting as context and an introduction by the paper's investigative journalists Rosalind S. Helderman and Matt Zapotosky, is planned to be released as an e-book within three days, with the paperback edition following in as few as five days, of the report's release, PW adds.

Melville House already has a website, GetMuellerReport.com, for readers to preorder the Mueller report book, with Johnson calling it "the most anticipated publication in American history" and the website deeming it "a document that can actually have an impact on the very future of our democracy." It is the publishing house's first mass market paperback ever, costing $9.99 with an initial print run of 50,000 copies.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Public Radio International reports that "the public may never see a report from Mueller's investigation" while Attorney General William Barr has said his goal is to release "as much" of the report as possible.

Explore More
Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.