Highly Anticipated James Comey Tell-All Tops Amazon Rankings
Former FBI Director James Comey already has a best-selling book on his hands, even though it will not be published for another month.
CNN reports Comey’s memoir A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, which is scheduled to be published Tuesday, April 17, reached No. 1 on the Amazon bestseller list Sunday night. It currently stands at No. 2.
The book was ranked No. 4 on Barnes and Noble’s bestseller list as of Sunday.
President Donald Trump gave A Higher Loyalty a boost Saturday when he attacked Comey during a series of morning tweets about the firing Friday night of former FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe.
Comey, who has not responded to Trump’s attacks in the past, fired back on Twitter.
“Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not.”
After the Twitter exchange, A Higher Loyalty moved from number 15 to 1.
Even before the tweet, the buzz around Comey’s book led the publisher Flatiron Books to move the publication date from May 1 to April 17.
What the book will include is still a matter of conjecture, and its Amazon page reveals little other than Comey’s background.
The interest in the book comes from Comey’s assertion that he will offer his version of the events that led Trump to fire him on May 9, 2017.
Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not.
— James Comey (@Comey) March 17, 2018
The dismissal came only a few weeks after Comey told the House Intelligence Committee the FBI was investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Though Trump initially said he fired Comey after receiving recommendations from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he later contradicted that in an interview with Lester Holt of NBC News, in which Trump said the action was taken because of “this Russian thing.”
The top ranking for A Higher Loyalty follows a path that has become familiar with books dealing with the Trump Administration.
The Comey book was replaced atop the Amazon rankings by another political book, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump written by the investigative reporting team of Michael Isikoff and David Corn.
An earlier tell-all, Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff, followed the same pattern as Comey’s book, climbing to No. 1 in the Amazon rankings long before its publication date.
Upon its publication, Wolff’s book immediately reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, where it has remained ever since.
