When David Cay Johnston learned of Donald Trump’s intentions to run for president in 2016, he knew—unlike many others—that the campaign was for real. Johnston had closely followed the real estate magnate’s doings since his 1992 exposé on casinos, Temples of Chance (Doubleday), and he understood that if there was one thing Trump cared about more than his self-proclaimed successes in the business world, it was himself.

“I tried to do a book when Donald announced in June of 2015, and Alice Martell, my literary agent, called around,” Johnston told PW. “But nobody believed he would get the nomination, so nobody wanted the book.”

Then, to Johnston’s surprise, he got a call from Martell earlier this year. Melville House Publishing, the Brooklyn-based indie press, wanted to crash his book; Johnston had 27 days in which to deliver the manuscript. Fortunately, the initial rejections to the proposal hadn’t slowed Johnston down. Between last June and the call from Melville House, he had published roughly two dozen pieces—aimed primarily at journalists—arguing that Trump should not be perceived as a potential public servant, but as a narcissist. And since he had written a quickie book before, he had the experience.

By July 5, with the help of his children—especially Amy, who served as fact checker and kept her father’s papers in order—he turned years of notes and a slew of articles, including weekly columns he had written for the Daily Beast, into The Making of Donald Trump. On July 19, he held a copy in his hand.

“I don’t want to mislead you. It was absolute hell,” Johnston said. “I can’t believe I pulled this off in 27 days.”

Since its publication on August 2, the book has sold almost 12,000 print copies according to Nielsen BookScan, and more than 20,000 or so copies according to Melville House cofounder Dennis Johnson, with strong sales to such non-BookScan-reporting outlets as airport stores and some mass merchandisers. The book is in its seventh printing.

Johnson, who launched Melville House in 2001 with the explicit intention of “getting Bush out of office,” said he’s “always on the prowl” when it comes to left-leaning political books. The publisher isn’t afraid to crash those titles, either; in the past few years, it has quickly published titles taking on topics as controversial as gay marriage and the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture.

“It’s the kind of thing they tell you not to do in publishing school,” Johnson said. “[But] we set up a great schedule, where David would write a chapter or two chapters, and we’d have editors working on those while he wrote the next chapters.” Earlier chapters, he added, would be revised or vetted by the publisher’s attorney at the same time.

“We’re not just in it for the money,” Johnson said. “We publish books like this because we want to have an impact. We want people to know the facts about this man.”

Johnston had been working on another manuscript at the time Melville House rang, tentatively titled The Prosperity Tax. But with the election and news cycle so focused on Trump, he knew now was the moment, so he pushed the other project to next year.

“One of the things I taught my children and students is, what we make of life’s unexpected opportunities is largely determined by how well we’ve prepared ourselves to take advantage of them,” he said. “You don’t know if your notes are ever going to produce anything. This time, I got lucky.”

Johnston had never heard of Melville House before working on the Trump book, but he had nothing but praise for the house’s ability to pull off the book in such a short time frame. “Melville House represents, in my mind, the value of being nimble in publishing,” he said. “On the day of publication, August 2, I bought lunch for the entire staff. ”

As for Trump himself, Johnston noted that, after all his research, the closest parallel he could find in American history was the presidency of Chester A. Arthur, a “complete crook” who, upon being elected president, immediately dismissed his cronies, refusing to populate the cabinet with them. Would Trump, in that position, do the same? Johnston doesn’t know. “I don’t think we’ve had anybody at all like him,” he said.

David Cay Johnston’s book on Donald Trump is just one of dozens of titles by or about the nominee that have been released, or re-released, in the past few months. We’ve rounded up 10 books from varying viewpoints to see how well their print editions are selling.

The Trump Coloring Book
M.G. Anthony
Pub Date: Dec. 2015
First-Week Sales: 5,593
Total Sales: 60,477

The Truth About Trump
Michael D’Antonio
Pub Date: May 31
First-Week Sales: 269
Total Sales: 2,434

A Child’s First Book of Trump
Black/Rosenthal
Pub Date: July 5
First-Week Sales: 4,719
Total Sales: 17,494

Trump and Me
Mark Singer
Pub Date: July 5
First-Week Sales: 420
Total Sales: 2,069

Yuge!
Garry Trudeau
Pub Date: July 5
First-Week Sales: 2,903
Total Sales: 19,034

Make America Great Again
Donald Trump
Pub Date: July 12
First-Week Sales: 2,340
Total Sales: 20,212

The Making of Donald Trump
David Cay Johnston
Pub Date: Aug. 2
First-Week Sales: 3,124
Total Sales: 11,855

In Trump We Trust
Ann Coulter
Pub Date: Aug. 23
First-Week Sales: 9,446
Total Sales: 9,559

Trump Revealed
Karnish/Fisher
Pub Date: Aug. 23
First-Week Sales: 6,905
Total Sales: 6,945

Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth
Wayne Barrett
Pub Date: Aug. 23
First-Week Sales: 19
Total Sales: 19