[1] Instant books were published on the Northeast blackout of 1965, the Moon landing, the Iran hostage crisis, and the murder of John Lennon.
[1] Two San Francisco Chronicle journalists wrote a book on the Jonestown massacre in 11 days, publishing it three hours before a competing work.
By the late 1980s, the New York Times said that their high cost of production along with several failed instant books caused publishers to back away from this process.
Executive editor, Charles Spicer, described to Writer's Digest how he looked for authors who were experienced reporters who were capable of gathering information quickly and writing to a deadline.
He had chosen Carlton Smith, an experienced reporter, to write an instant book on the Jon Benet Ramsay case (Death of a Little Princess).
Instead of publishing documents—publishers looked for other ways to create value with instant books by focusing on major sporting and news events.
JHU Press published an instant book on the gun violence debate shortly after the Sandy Hook incident with materials gathered from a summit that was quickly conceived and put together.