Throughout the long and contentious U.S. presidential election campaign, a nation’s attention was fixed on reading tweets and emails. Three weeks after the surprise result that will take Donald Trump to the White House for the next four years, publishers and booksellers alike now hope Americans will want to read something – anything – else.

This fall, booksellers reported a decline in business that they attributed to the distractions of the democratic process. Already, though, as the holiday shopping season gears up, the signs point to improving sales.

“Indie bookseller have told Publishers Weekly that readers bought ‘tons of fiction’ right after the election. Apparently, everyone just wanted to escape,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.

“In late October and early November, the election certainly had a negative impact for the indies,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “With so much attention devoted to the campaign, it was tough to squeeze in any book promotion.”