The relationship between CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell (not to be confused with the actual writer of the biography, Vernon Loeb), has me wondering what might have happened between other biographers and their living sources.

Is the Petraeus/Broadwell affair a fluke? Most certainly . . . but I can’t help but wonder if joining Biographers International Association (BIO) and adding biographies to my writing credits might improve my social life.

Real writer was “dumbfounded”

While the Petraeus/Broadwell (and now Jill Kelley/Gen. John Allen) affair was a surprise to even writer Loeb (“I was dumbfounded,” he writes in The Washington Post), it probably thrills Penguin Press, the publisher of All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.

The book released in January is currently at 167 on the Amazon sales list, yet has more one-star than five-star comments on the retail site. The average rating, out of five max, is 2.8. And yet, it’s pretty close to being one of the top 100 sellers today (and might have been in the top 100 earlier this week).

That, my friends, is the impact a good scandal can have on your book sales. Which makes me think that joining BIO might help my social life and my checking account. Petraeus will need a true biography at some point, so I’d like to be well-positioned for the assignment by then. I’ll just have to advise him not to expect a happy ending.

Off-topic, but worth discussing: Do you think that Holly Petraeus will stay with her husband?