After watching Michael Wolff on Meet the Press Sunday morning, readers are waking up to learn that his new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, is really difficult to find. While publisher Henry Holt & Co. scrambles to get more copies printed and shipped, the book has sold out at most online and bricks-and-mortar retailers, with a two-week minimum wait at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can still purchase an e-book or audiobook version of Fire and Fury, but print copies have become a rare commodity.
Reports trickled in over the weekend that Wolff's book had sold out. BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner tweeted on Friday that Washington, D.C. seller Kramerbooks sold out "in less than 20 minutes." A Saturday article in Newsweek revealed that the bomb cyclone that blasted the East Coast in early January also delayed shipments of Fire and Fury to New York City bookstores. Wolff's book is so difficult to find that "[s]ome journalists have been sharing copies with each other," according to CNN.
Even libraries are having a difficult time securing enough copies of Fire and Fury to meet demand. I saw this firsthand when I requested a copy of Wolff's exposé from my local library, which serves about 300,000 patrons, only to learn that there were already 34 holds placed on the six copies in the system, all of which are currently on order. The problem is not restricted to rural library systems, however. TIME reports that "[t]he New York Public Library, the second-largest public library system in the U.S. behind only the Library of Congress, had 1,174 holds (and rising) on 49 copies of [Fire and Fury]," and that the institution has "ordered 450 more rush copies" in order to meet its patrons' demands.
Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump White House by Michael Wolff, $15, Amazon
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House sits at the top of Amazon's print, Kindle, and Audible bestseller lists, at the time of this writing. Henry Holt & Co. released the book four days early, pushing the sale date from Jan. 9 to Jan. 5, due to "unprecedented demand," following the delivery of cease-and-desist letters from Donald Trump's lawyer to the publisher and author, an act of prior restraint that may have violated the First Amendment.
Henry Holt & Co. is pushing to get its new book on shelves as soon as possible, but that two-week wait may be too much for some book nerds. If you're itching to read Michael Wolff's tell-all bestseller, buying an e-book or audiobook is your best bet.
