Her publisher, Penguin Random House, is thrilled by the early success of the biggest political blockbuster since John Howard’s Lazarus Rising, reporting sales of more than 5000 copies on the first day the book went on sale, and that book retail chain Dymocks had sold almost 10 per cent of its entire order on the first day.

Like Ms Clinton, Ms Gillard’s publishers have snubbed the usual route of old white male politicians who give first exclusive extracts of their books to the mainstream press, followed by a “true believers” launch in Parliament House or back in the old electorate.

While Ms Clinton chose Vogue magazine to publish exclusive extracts of her book, Hard Choices, Ms Gillard gave a preview interview to Channel Nine’s Ray Martin.

Social researcher Hugh Mackay said Ms Gillard’s story had now become a broader mainstream “human tragedy” story rather than a political memoir.

With a female protagonist rising to the highest political office and then falling with dignity, Ms Gillard’s memoirs are also selling to young women – the target of the booming “young adult” market that has spawned the Twilight and Hunger Games behemoths. Mr Mackay, whose own book The Art of Belonging will be released next week, said the book’s early success could be attributed to curiosity about how Ms Gillard coped with a poisonous political atmosphere and the ­public’s ambivalence about her place in history.

“I think we wanted to be more ­positive about her when she was prime minister than we actually were,” he said.

“She was obviously a tough cookie and she had a couple of wins in her first few weeks so our expectations were very, very high, especially among women.”

While sales of Ms Clinton’s book have proved disappointing, Mr Mackay said he expected Ms Gillard to remain on the best seller list for some months.

“In the US they are more accustomed to women in senior positions of power,” he said.


http://www.afr.com/p/national/julia_gillard_memoirs_fly_off_the_QZfcYb8ileR7tBni...