Nothing like selling out a book's first printing before it's actually been printed! Yes We Can: Barack Obama's History-Making Presidential Campaign, the book of Scout Tufankjian's campaign trail photos, is a pre-publication hit for powerHouse Books. The publisher reports that it has sold out the 55,000-copy first edition of the book nearly a month before its scheduled mid-December release date. A second printing of 25,000 copies has been ordered to arrive at the same time.

In a recent chat with powerHouse, Tufankjian explained why she pursued documenting the campaign on a full-time basis, from before Obama announced his run through the election night festivities in Chicago's Grant Park. "I think part of it was pure stubbornness, combined with a journalist's fear of missing something," she said. "Once I had decided that this was going to be historic and that I wanted to document as much of it as possible, I didn't want to miss anything. I remember freaking out because I was missing a small town hall meeting in Claremont, NH. Now, attending this event would have involved a six-hour drive through a blizzard when I had a 100-degree fever and a wicked sore throat. Despite that, I still had to be forcibly dissuaded from going."

Were there any restrictions on what she was allowed to photograph? "Not really," said Tufankjian. "The AP and the networks had worked out a deal with the campaign that we weren't supposed to photograph him in gym clothes (not sure why, but he does wear a super dorky gym outfit) and that we were supposed to leave the kids alone during private moments, but beyond that there were no rules." A super dorky gym outfit? We smell sequel!

Previously on UnBeige: