Joe McGinniss was an American non-fiction writer and novelist. He was the author of twelve books and first came to prominence with the best-selling The Selling of the President 1968, which described the marketing of then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon. This work spent more than six months on best-seller lists.

McGinniss is popularly known for his trilogy of bestselling true crime books—Fatal Vision, Blind Faith, and Cruel Doubt—which were adapted into TV miniseries in the 1980s and 90s. His last book was The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, an account of Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee.