The book, published by Knopf’s Vintage imprint, is being rushed for publication before January’s inauguration.

According to Neyfakh, the deal was finalized, “about two weeks before the election,” but there’s no word when work first started.

The book’s editor, Errol McDonald, says if it was Sen. John McCain who emerged victorious, “It’d probably be called ‘How Barack Obama Lost.’”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As we reported Friday, the networks have agreed to wait until 5pmET to release that data on the air. Then it’s a two hour wait for the first polls to close in several states including battlegrounds Indiana and Virginia.

And once the polls close, the counting begins. And 270, is 270.

“The CNN Decision Team lives by the simple motto: better to be right than first,” political director Sam Feist tells TVNewser. But if either candidate makes it to the 270 needed to win before the polls close in some western states, the networks won’t wait.

“There’s no way to get around it,” CBS News senior VP Paul Friedman tells The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough. “If one man gets 270 electoral votes before the West Coast polls are closed, we’re not going to pretend (he doesn’t).”

Says ABC News senior VP Jeffrey Schneider, “No one is rushing to project a state.”

But like Obama and McCain, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CNN all want to win too.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.