If CNN anchor Jake Tapper didn’t already know that his career was spiraling into irrelevancy, the arctic reception of his latest book “All the Demons Are Here” should be his final wake-up call.
The book sold less than 5,000 copies in its first week, despite its aggressive marketing campaign and celebrity promotions.
The flop probably surprised Tapper, as his first book reached number three on the New York Times Best Sellers List in 2018. “The Hellfire Club” introduced readers to Congressman Charlie Marder and his zoologist wife Margaret.
The book spawned a sequel in 2021’s “The Devil May Dance,” and inevitably led to the disastrous continuation of the couple’s story, “All the Demons Are Here.”
This book follows the Marder kids in the 1970s, reporter daughter Lucy and son Ike, an AWOL marine with PTSD who is working for Evel Knievel.
With such a fascinating premise, how could it fail?
But fail it did, and spectacularly.
Jake Tapper is just one of a long list of failed political figures and celebrities who have tried to cash in on a different side of their creativity. In 2022, Democratic Representative Cori Bush (D-MO) attempted to publish her political memoir, “The Forerunner: A Story of Pain and Perseverance in America.” The book tanked as badly as her current political career, selling just over one thousand copies.
But that’s nearly 800 more copies than “Jill: A Biography of the First Lady” sold. Written by Associated Press Executive Editor and Senior Vice President Julie Pace and AP White House reporter Darlene Superville, the book’s gloomy first-week sales of only 250 copies proved that no one is inspired by, or really cares about, Jill Biden.
For Jake Tapper, the fall from grace was more an indication of his failing network than a personal attack. Tapper is one of the few liberal anchors at CNN that earned praise from liberals and conservatives alike, managing to remain remarkably neutral at a station known for lampooning both conservatives and the truth.
Shortly after the 2022 midterm elections, Tapper lost his prime-time CNN TV spot and returned to hosting “The Lead.” His removal was prompted by his low ratings during his stint on CNN Tonight. It was one of a series of calculated changes made by CNN’s new President, Chris Licht, as he attempts to restore journalism to the declining network.
While Tapper joins the list of failed liberal authors, books written by conservatives historically tend to trend on best-seller lists. In 2020, talk show host Sean Hannity released “Live Free or Die: America (and the World) on the Brink. Within the first three weeks, the book sold more than 500k copies. Hannity’s most popular book, “Let Freedom Ring,” spent 15 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and he has sold more than 3 million copies of his books.
Talk radio show host Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny spent multiple weeks as the number one New York Times Best Seller List in 2009. The book’s success pales in comparison to the success of his best-seller American Marxism, which sold over a million copies in its first ten weeks of publication. Levin’s best-seller spent eleven weeks as the #1 best seller.
Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly released his bestselling Killing books, which include titles like Killing the Mob, Killing Kennedy, and Killing the Killers, to critical acclaim. O’Reilly has sold more than 17 million copies of books from this series alone.
Other noted conservative authors that topped the New York Times Best Seller List include Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich; David Horowitz; Ben Shapiro; Sean Hannity; Sarah Huckabee Sanders; Candace Owens; Jeanine Pirro, and Ted Cruz. Even former president Donald Trump scored a spot on the list with The Art of the Deal in 1987.
These examples show that bestsellers can come from celebrities, network hosts, and even former presidents.
So how did Tapper fail so miserably with his latest release? After all, he works for a network known for its own works of fiction. How could his characters, star reporter Lucy and her PTSD-suffering AWOL marine Evel Knievel employee brother, Ike, fail to entertain the simple minds of liberals?
The failure of Tapper’s book is an emerging mystery novel for the next unsuccessful Democrat author to write.
