If media decided the books of the Proof series should sell millions of copies because they inarguably do more than any others to offer voters a comprehensive education on Trump's malfeasance abroad, they'd sell millions of copies and voters would be so edcuated. It's that simple.
PS/ The books are somber, sober, serious, and sourced beyond any reasonable expectation. What surprises me about the lack of coverage is that no one in journalism can see how wild the story behind the books' creation was. It could've been an amazing story for someone to write up.
PS2/ I wrote political histories in real time—writing the books on the same days their key events were unfolding, metajournalistically curating thousands and thousands of sources from around the world—and the story of what happened to me, the books, and publishing is a crazy one.
PS3/ One of the most interesting parts of the story is not just the insane writing process that led to a NYT bestseller being written in 19 days, but what I learned are the health effects of trying to—paradoxically—write history books in the *literal moment* history is happening.
PS4/ Curation at this scale, speed, and immediacy takes a physical and mental toll people don't understand. Even I don't. Indeed, I'll go further and say that things happened to me during the writing of these books even my doctors don't understand. It could've been a good story.
PS5/ The conceptualization of what a book is—a sentence is, a paragraph is—that had to be brought to bear for the Proof series is a story in its own right. Even as I was being attacked for being a poet, I knew the books couldn't happen without my training in experimental poetry.
PS6/ The whole thing unfolded amidst death threats. Amidst major-media hitpieces that lied about my background and credentials and led to lawsuit threats and subsequent retractions of false stories. I was identified by the White House as a key enemy of the president. It got ugly.
PS7/ At what other time in book-publishing history has a simple Microsoft Word *macros glitch* almost led to the collapse of a 2,500-page epic being published at this scale and visibility? I'm serious: the whole project was minutes from ending due to an unforeseen computer snafu.
PS8/ Throughout the course of the project, there was the pressure of being a journalism professor who believes as a matter of study and research that journalism is entering a new era—that we're in a moment of paradigm shift the trilogy was specifically intended to participate in.
PS9/ The result is a NYT-bestselling political nonfiction epic extending 2,500 pages and 12,000 major-media citations that could educate Americans in a new way—a way we haven't tried before—on the gravest threats we've faced since WWII. And media can't be bothered to even see it.
PS10/ I know people won't believe me, but I'm not bitter for myself. I spent years publishing poetry books read by <500 people, and never had any expectation of developing a large audience. I didn't even have that interest. My upset is that *I know these books could help voters*.
