Straight Talk About Book Publishing From John McCain

From a Q&A with John McCain in today’s N.Y. Times Magazine:

Q. Well, maybe you will strike it rich with your coming book, “Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them.” How did you have time to write a 450-page look at history?

A. Mark Salter, my co-writer, did it. What we usually do is use a tape recorder and we talk back and forth, and then 90 percent of the hard work is done by him.

Q. Why bother to bring out a book if you’re not going to write it yourself?

A. Well, we had an editor, Jonathan Karp, and it was his suggestion and idea.

If there were an Olympic event for Candor, I think McCain would win it every time.