The bestseller and the flop: A tale of two prime ministers

Former prime minister Tony Abbott’s book on Australian history has been an extraordinary bestseller, already generating sales in excess of $2 million.

In December, Sky News reported (or is the verb promoted?) that Harper Collins publisher Jim Demetriou had said Abbott’s book, Australia: A History, had sold 65,000 copies. The news service (which, like the publisher, is owned by News Corp) then scrupulously provided some vital context: “Harper Collins published the book after first being introduced to the then-unfinished manuscript by Sky News Australia CEO Paul Whittaker.” Boris, take a bow!

Not so fortunate is another ex-PM, Scott Morrison, whose religious book Plans For Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness was published in 2024 by Thomas Nelson, an imprint of Harper Collins. It sold a mere 290 hardback copies through booksellers and 3340 in its paperback edition. That’s a total of 3630 units, according to closely watched publishing industry data compiled by NielsenIQ BookData, clocking in at about $113,000 in total sales, by February 14.

Morrison wasn’t keen to discuss with us and nor were the publishers. But Abbott told CBD: “Looks like people were hungry for a book that sees the light as well as the shade in our history and declares that, on balance, there’s much to take pride in.”

As we have written before, it is important to note that Nielsen figures don’t catch every sale. They account only for consumer purchases through bookshops, and they do not have coverage across all retailers. And they certainly don’t record sales figures in the US, which was a key target, for Morrison’s book, which includes a foreword by former US vice president Mike Pence.

It’s plausible that Morrison has notched up plenty of sales through alternative means of distribution, including online and religious outlets, that might not be accounted for by Nielsen’s analysis. Still, it looks like a flop from where we’re sitting.

It is impossible to work out how much of that $2.2 million in sales has found its way to Abbott, considering we don’t know what the size of his advance was through Harper Collins. However, industry sources tell us that after an advance is earned back, standard contracts hand authors about 10 per cent of the cover price, so it looks like a nice little earner by anyone’s reckoning.

Premiers break bread with News Corp heavyweights

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan have had plenty to keep them busy over the past few months. But that hasn’t stopped the state leaders from making time for friends old and new, if their latest diary disclosures are anything to go by.

Few would be surprised to learn that Minns met with News Corp heavyweights for lunch on October 30 last year. Minns took an entourage of NSW Labor ministers including Penny Sharpe, Paul Scully, Stephen Kamper, Courtney Houssos, Rose Jackson and Yasmin Catley to go and kiss the ring with him.

The lunch, we can only guess, took place at News Corp’s Australian headquarters on Holt Street in Surry Hills, as is often the case with political-media seances of this nature (not that Minns’ disclosures are any help). Not in the disclosures, CBD hears the Murdoch-controlled media giant was represented by executive chairman Michael Miller, who was said to be flanked by a gaggle of his senior colleagues. Sadly, no word on what was discussed, or who else was there.

That rendezvous came just a couple of weeks after Minns had taken a meeting with the Daily Telegraph, which is published by News Corp Australia, to discuss “public affairs”. The disclosure doesn’t list who from the newspaper was present, but we hear the premier got coffee with the Tele’s editor, Ben English. Again no word on what dominated the agenda for their catch-up.

While these kinds of meetings are relatively normal, and occur with all manner of media bosses, history would suggest that English’s Sydney tabloid has no trouble getting the ear of the NSW premier. Or, at least according to Minns’ diary, which shows that the newspaper met with the premier four times last year.

South of the border, Allan initiated the system of quarterly public diary disclosures. On December 2, she had a catch-up with the Herald & Weekly Times, the Victorian division of News Corp, which included HWT chair Penny Fowler, also in her capacity as chair of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Tourism Australia and the Good Friday Appeal.

Also at the meeting was erstwhile Torrumbarry boy and later Sydney Morning Herald China correspondent, Robert Thomson, now global chief executive of News Corp based in New York. Absent from the list were Herald Sun editor Sam Weir and News Corp Australia executive editor Peter Blunden.

Minns was also able to find time for former US ambassador Kevin Rudd, whom he met alongside NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey on October 30, to discuss an “upcoming summit and forums”. The next day, Minns met with former prime minister Paul Keating. But it was the latter who was able to get the premier’s ear on “government policy”. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for that one.

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