A presidential memoir has the US publishing industry abuzz, and it’s not former president Barack Obama’s hefty new tome. The Washington Post has reported that President Donald Trump is exploring writing a “score-settling memoir” once he departs office , following the typical post-presidential route of selling an extremely well-compensated book. White House for Biden? 5 more OTT homes Donald Trump can stay in There’s certainly precedent for books in the Trump pantheon; he’s already had his name on a suite of books, and the marketplace for Trump tell-alls and “inner circle” books has been booming. His son, Donald Trump Jr, topped the bestseller list (with some caveats) with his 2019 book Triggered , published by conservative Hachette imprint Center Street. He self-published his most recent book, Liberal Privilege . Top Trumps: why it’s not just Donald in the spotlight this month Presidential memoirs are often a huge boon for publishers, and the “Big Five” major houses – Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster (soon to be “Big Four” with the last just bought by Penguin Random House) – snap them up. To acquire one is often a career high for publishers and editors, according to Publishers Weekly . Obama’s memoir just broke first-day-sales records, selling 890,000 copies. He and wife Michelle struck a joint book deal in 2017 for US$65 million. The historically New York-centric publishing business is full of workers who lean left politically, but the “best-kept secret in publishing is that so much of the industry is supported by conservative authors”, an editor at a major publishing house told Business Insider. And while Trump could decide to self-publish, as his son recently did, precedent suggests one of the “Big Four” will bag a deal with him, putting them on a collision course with their New York-based, left-leaning staff. Tour the White House: peek inside a few of its 132 rooms Business Insider spoke with 10 publishing workers and industry veterans about the brewing tensions over Trump’s potential memoir. All the lower-level workers spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fears over retribution in a competitive and low-paid industry. The White House declined a request to comment. Presidential memoirs are big business The market for political books has been especially strong in 2020. The bestselling book on Amazon for the year is Mary Trump’s tell-all Too Much and Never Enough ; Barack Obama’s newly released memoir comes in at fifth, and John Bolton’s look inside the White House, The Room Where It Happened , comes in at eighth. Other top sellers include books by prominent conservatives, such as Candace Owens’ Blackout , Sean Hannity’s Live Free or Die , and Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Speaking for Myself . The outgoing president seems especially well positioned to see strong demand for a memoir, given that he divides opinion more than just about any other political figure you could mention. Dana Canedy, the publisher and senior vice-president of Simon & Schuster, told The New York Times that she would “take a meeting on the book”. Given the largely progressive leanings of lower-level workers in publishing, though, a Trump book could mean a left-wing army of interns, assistants and editors would be selling the book, sending out emails and writing the catalogue copy. Tiffany Trump, Donald’s least favourite child? Overwhelmingly, the publishing rank and file said they hoped a Trump memoir would not get published, citing the toxic nature of the content. Some of the lower-level workers we spoke to said they’d try to push back if their publisher took the book; others said they would fear speaking up, but would try to opt out of promoting it. While working on books they worry are harmful, publishing employees fear for their jobs “This has been a recurring theme for as long as I’ve worked in books,” one worker at Macmillan told Business Insider, saying that at a previous publishing job it felt “terrible” to sell books from conservative pundits. “Nobody ever really asks in the room, ‘Is this a good idea?’ Because the answer is always going to be ‘yes’ from the publisher’s side, because they’re major cash cows.” Where do Donald, Melania and Barron Trump eat when they’re not at home? A worker at Penguin Random House said that acquiring and working on these books was a “big sticking point” for employees, but that hasn’t inhibited publishers from buying them, at least in their experience. They said they constantly hear from higher-ups about the need to publish “both sides”. But, the Penguin worker continued, when “you decide to publish books from people who lied and did irreparable harm to our country”, it makes the publisher complicit, and that’s different from merely nodding to both sides. There are other power dynamics at work besides partisanship. Publishing is a notoriously competitive industry, with low-paying entry-level roles. The Penguin employee said that assistant workers who would be assigned to a high-paying Trump book might be making a salary somewhere in the US$30,000 range and may have been in a lower-level job for years. Like many other industries, publishing faced a reckoning this year, and not just due to Covid-19. In June, workers were called out for a “day of action” in solidarity with protests over racial equity and police brutality. The publishing industry has belatedly begun to confront its lack of diversity. A 2019 survey from Lee & Low Books found that the industry was 75 per cent white. And entry-level workers – the ones who have least control over the work they’re assigned but are among the most involved in pushing books on a daily basis – were the most diverse group in terms of race, sexual orientation and disability status. The Macmillan employee said that with the “many issues of equity and access” in publishing, it’s disheartening to see major houses consider buying books from figures like Trump, who issued an executive order against some diversity training. But lower-level employees risk losing their positions or the chance of a promotion if they push back. Top Trumps: Donald, Melania and who does – or doesn’t – support them The Penguin employee said they’d previously received pushback for speaking out against titles they disagree with. “If you lose your job in publishing, there are 25 people waiting at the door to take your spot,” they said. Tanya McKinnon, an agent, emphasised that publishing was a business, but there’s context to consider. “Certainly all of the major houses are bottom-line-driven, and that means that they have books by people that we are not necessarily ideologically aligned with,” she said. “In a world that values facts and truth, I think that creates the context for robust debate.” But, in a world where truth is “maligned”, she said, “it becomes a much more dangerous proposition in terms of how some voices are elevated above others.” An industry that’s faced its share of reckonings Even before the protests this summer, publishing workers used collective action to push back on more controversial and damaging books. In 2017, employees and authors spoke out against Simon & Schuster publishing a book by right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos. The book was ultimately cancelled after remarks Yiannopoulos made about sex between “younger boys” and grown men were widely circulated. 16 artists who told Trump to stop playing their music at campaign events In March, Hachette Book Group cancelled Woody Allen’s memoir after an unprecedented walkout by employees. That book ended up getting published by Skyhorse Publishing, which several publishing workers cited as a possible home for a Trump memoir. Tony Lyons, the president and publisher of Skyhorse, said in a statement that the house “believes in publishing stories by important political figures, regardless of whether they are Democrats, Republicans or third-party candidates. We often publish books on both sides of an issue, with starkly opposing points of view.” Skyhorse believes in freedom of speech and taking “a strong stance against cancel culture”, he said, adding that as a small, privately owned publisher, it can make creative offers that can be more lucrative for authors than the big corporate publishers can afford to make. Simon & Schuster declined to comment. Several publishing workers indicated that they anticipated there would be some form of collective action if the Trump memoir was acquired. But it’s unclear what effect, if any, that would have. Publishing a Trump memoir could leave lasting brand damage Order my book CRIPPLED AMERICA for your holiday gifts. I will be signing books for the next two weeks! https://t.co/jg50w3rcnn — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2015 David Unger directs the publishing certificate programme at the City College of New York, which aims to equip students – especially from under-represented backgrounds – with the skills and knowledge to enter the industry. The rumours about Bill Gates starting the coronavirus are nuts – here's why “There are many things I wouldn’t do for money, but there are publishing houses that believe the bottom line is more important than their civic responsibilities,” he said by email. “I don’t believe publishers should be giving a platform to an unscrupulous president who lacks any sort of moral compass.” Carol Taylor, the editorial director of McKinnon Literary, said that, in the long term, publishing a book like Trump’s “might end up damaging the publisher brand and identity”, even if it makes money in the short term. (Taylor is also a former Random House book editor.) Several publishing workers said they saw publishing Trump’s memoir as a line in the sand that a larger house may not want to cross. “I mean, [it’s] one thing to say, ‘Here’s a Fox News pundit publishing a book that represents what they think and what they say on TV and things like that”, McKean said. “Then there’s a book by Donald Trump that would be full of lies, which makes me nervous to say, because does that put me at risk to say that?” Kimberley Guilfoyle: the model, Fox host and viral meme dating Trump Jr. Unger said he also doesn’t “believe that they should publish books by [Trump’s] many enablers.” But publishing has a track record of committing to conservative pundits. If a Trump memoir became a sticking point, it could elicit a moment of greater reflection. book fever in #election2016 ! Clinton/Kaine publish "Stronger Together", Trump "untrumps" cover of "Crippled America" pic.twitter.com/7up4vo6wi6 — Arthur Honegger (@honegger) September 6, 2016 “I do believe in a marketplace of ideas and publishing a diversity of perspectives,” one editor at a Big Five house told Business Insider. “Where the line gets fuzzy for me is, at what point are these perspectives or these books inciting violence, danger, xenophobia, racism?” This editor suggested that publishing such books could put the people working on them in danger, or make them feel unsafe. Who will inherit Rupert Murdoch’s US$17 billion media empire? If Trump were to bypass the big houses by self-publishing, that would put the fears of liberal staff at ease, but the agency assistant said they believed the writing was already on the wall. “I think that the publishing industry has already shown their hand. I would be shocked if nobody bought this book. It’s just a matter of how they’re going to spin it.” Want more stories like this? Sign up here . Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter . This article originally appeared on Business Insider.