A year before Labor's factional warlords plotted Mr Rudd's downfall, Jessica Rudd had plotted a similar political coup, albeit fictional.

Her debut novel Campaign Ruby features a female treasurer who rolls the prime minister and calls a snap election.

The main character of the book, described as ''Bridget Jones on the campaign trail'', is Ruby, a policy adviser to the federal opposition leader.

With its bizarre parallels with the Julia Gillard coup against her father, Ms Rudd's novel is already into its second print run.

Ms Rudd broke down during her speech while thanking her parents, brothers and husband Albert. Sitting in the front row, Therese Rein and the former prime minister fanned away their own tears of joy.

''What a journey this has been - not even Paul the Octopus would have seen this coming,'' she said. ''Mum's getting teary, it's a genetic problem. My mum has read every single chapter of this book as I completed it and has begged for the next. And my dad, despite everything, has been rock-solid in his support of me.''

Later, Ms Rein lined up at the autograph signing table, clutching half-a-dozen copies for her daughter to sign.

The owner of the bookstore where the event was held, Suzy Wilson, launched the book, addressing ''the elephant in the room'' head on. ''By some extraordinary act of the imagination, when Jessica was writing this book, she wrote into the plot some events that came to mirror aspects of political events in the last few months,'' she said.

''There's a saying in the literary world: good writing allows the reader to suspend their disbelief.

''Well, the way Jessica wrote these events … in the context of this work of fiction, I found them to be completely believable.

''But when the strikingly similar events did occur in the Australian political arena, I found them just the opposite. I have not been able to suspend my disbelief.''