Are you ready for 448 pages of redactions? Like the Starr Report — but undoubtedly less salacious and for some reason less damaging to the president’s prospects — Robert Mueller’s report on Donald Trump’s collusion and/or obstruction (and/or PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!) will be a public-domain document, which book publishers are free to release and supplement however they see fit. Which gives the reader plenty of options. Here they are (with a big assist from Publishers Weekly):
The Free Audiobook
Audible.com has announced plans to release an audiobook which you can preorder for $0.00, which you’ll be able to listen to “shortly after the document is made available by an official or sanctioned entity.†Presumably the voice will be automated, so you’ll be hearing a lot of “redacted†in Alexa voice.
The Free E-Book
Barnes & Noble announced yesterday that the report will be available, also for free, in your Nook library, so long as you preorder and download their reading app. (Or, of course, you can just go on the DOJ website and give it a read.)
The Pulitzer Winner Edition
Scribner promises you’ll be able to download an e-book version of the report by tomorrow, supplemented with reporting and analysis from the Washington Post and an introduction from journalists Rosalind S. Helderman and Matt Zapotosky. (Helderman won a Pulitzer for her reporting on Russia and the Trump campaign in the Post last year.) But if you’re looking for a print memento, the first paperback printing (of at least 350,000 copies) should be out the door by the following Friday, April 26.
The Take You’ve Been Waiting For: Alan Dershowitz
The quirky mass independent Skyhorse Publishing is releasing its own edition with an introduction by lawyer, gadfly, televised Trump supporter, and Martha’s Vineyard pariah Alan Dershowitz. Should be interesting! Those will also be available by next Friday or shortly afterward.
The Lefty Mass-Market Edition
Melville House Books, the tiny Brooklyn publisher with a political bent, has decided to release a mass-market edition, in the tradition of the Colonial pamphleteers and Danielle Steel. There won’t be any introductory bells or whistles, just a straight report for $9.99. (Perfect for those of us who think there’s been enough spin already.) The relatively small first printing of 50,000 should hit stores by Monday, April 29. Happy reading!