“Unfettered” — described by its publisher as an unapologetic account of the unconventional life of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, as written by Fetterman — will become part of the canon of the literal Library of Congress when it comes out on Veterans Day.

It’s Fetterman’s maiden memoir, but the second tome to be published in his household this year. His wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, released “Radical Tenderness” on July 8.

Pennsylvania’s other senator, Dave McCormick, and his wife, Dina, also published this year. “Who Believed in You?” is a leadership book they teamed up to write that was published April 1.

The Fettermans are Democrats who live in Braddock, with ties to York and Brazil, and the McCormicks are Squirrel Hill Republicans with ties to Connecticut and Egypt.

The publishing deals for the books weren’t released. Both of the Fettermans are published by imprints of Penguin Random House and the McCormicks’ book is published by Harper Collins Leadership.

Dave McCormick’s other books include “The Downsized Warrior” (1998) and “Superpower in Peril” (2023).

A lucrative sidehustle

Dave McCormick is a hedge fund manager with a net worth pegged at about $100 million. Dina Powell McCormick is a former Trump adviser and Goldman Sachs executive who would be a millionaire even if she wasn’t married to one.

The Fettermans aren’t in that tax bracket. Before he became a senator, John Fetterman was Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, a job with a salary of about $199,000 — and he took a 13% pay cut when he settled into the Senate and its $174,000 salary. Gisele Fetterman is an activist who helps to run a free store in Braddock.

Interest in John Fetterman’s story could mean he was paid an advance of between $500,000 and just over $1 million, Jane Friedman, a Cincinnati-based publishing analyst, told TribLive.

Fetterman, a York native with a master’s degree from Harvard, came to Braddock via Americorps. He ultimately became mayor, a largely ceremonial post that he used to gain national profile as “Mayor of Hell” with an articulate voice, 6-foot-8 frame, tattoos and a wardrobe that to this day almost exclusively consists of gym shorts and a hoodie.

Fetterman was lieutenant governor during Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration and was elected to the Senate in 2022.

He’s kept to a savant slacker aesthetic with rare exceptions that included McCormick’s maiden speech on the Senate floor.

Just two dudes from the Commonwealth.

Thanks to my friend, @SenFettermanPA, for coming to my maiden floor speech. pic.twitter.com/WRAxXUFnj8

— Senator Dave McCormick (@SenMcCormickPA) July 24, 2025

“I could see $500,000,” Ed Simon, a Pittsburgh-based author and editor, told TribLive, of the advance John Fetterman could have received for “Unfettered.”

Simon teaches at Carnegie Mellon University, edits Belt magazine, and has published several books, including “Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain” published by Melville House, another imprint of Penguin Random House.

An advance is a payment made to an author against future royalties, Simon said.

Historically, writing isn’t a lucrative profession, so advances are generally provided to help writers subsist while they work.

Once a book earns whatever advance the publisher agreed to, the writer also receives royalties that can range from a low of about 5% to a high of 15%, Simon said.

A respectable advance for an author generally isn’t as high as those paid to political figures.

Simon said the highest advance he has earned is $18,000. “I’m not a national figure, obviously,” he said.

Books that a publisher hopes to win a literary award might merit a $250,000 advance. “I don’t think books by elected officials ever actually sold that well,” he said.

Sales for nonfiction books are decreasing, Friedman told TribLive. “It’s not the same market as 2016,” she said.

During President Donald Trump’s first term, books by his current and former staffers made for splashy headlines.

It was in that heady time that J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” was published and came to be viewed by some as a prophetic look at what prompted the rise of Trumpism. Others dismissed the book’s reliance on stereotypes to propel Vance’s story.

“Sometimes, advances can be spectacular,” Simon said.

Former President Joe Biden agreed to a $10 million advance from Little, Brown for a memoir of his term in the Oval Office.

“The vast majority of books don’t earn out their advance,” Simon said.

When they do, it means royalty checks for writers and those who receive them are thankful, he said.

Inside the ‘Library of Congress’

Legislators are nearly as prolific writing books as they are bills, especially in this polarized time where Republicans hold a razor-thin 219-212 seat edge over Democrats in the House. (There are four vacancies.) There are 53 Republicans in the Senate and 45 Democrats with two independents who caucus with Democrats.

The Library of Congress compiled a survey of the books written by the 119th Congress. It includes 57 books written by members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

They include “My American Life” by Lauren Boebert, the representative from Colorado, that boasts a foreword by Sen. Ted Cruz, “Fortitude” by Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, and “Making Ideas Matter” by Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia.

Other members of Southwest Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation have yet to publish books.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler disavowed a foreword he penned to “Battle on the Home Front: A Navy SEAL’s Mission to Save the American Dream” a self-published 2012 book by Carl Higbee. Reschenthaler said he hadn’t fully read the book after it came under fire for spreading bigotry.

Senators are even more prolific: 95 books have been published by current senators.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, is the most prolific and boasts a dozen books, many co-written, that are about economic and personal subjects. They include “Persist,” described by its publisher as a deeply personal call to action.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist who is an independent voice in the upper house, has voiced views including “It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism” and “Our Revolution.” They are among the seven books he’s written.

Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian Republican from Kentucky, is Sanders’ foil and has written six books, including “The Case Against Socialism.”

Regardless of its content, “Unfettered” appears as if it will fit in among the books of the 119th Congress, the sum total of which would fill, but not overstuff, a run-of-the-mill five-shelf bookcase.

Fetterman, McCormick and their publishers did not return requests seeking comment.

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