From The Bookseller:
Penguin Random House has scooped the world rights to publish former US president Barack Obama’s book, along with a title from his wife Michelle, in a deal reported to have topped $65m (£52.5m).
Barack and Michelle are writing separate books, but brokered the deal together through literary agent Robert Barnett, who also negotiated former UK prime minister Tony Blair’s £4.5m book deal, and Deneen Howell of Williams & Connolly. No separate information about UK publication plans have been revealed, and a PRH UK spokesperson declined to give any more information.
The books will reflect on the Obamas’ White House years and Associated Press has cited “a publishing official with knowledge of the negotiations” as saying Barack Obama’s book will be a straightforward memoir about his presidency, while Michelle Obama plans to write an inspirational work for young people that will draw upon her life story.
Link to the rest at The Bookseller
If they offer you $65 Million, I’d say go for it…
PRH has reached out to many of their ‘old’ authors including us. It would appear they are trying to rake in ongoing long term brands, amongst other aims. Just talked to three other ‘old authors’ from RH and P, same. PHone calls and invites. We’ll see.
They have to sell HOW many copies to make a profit?
Not quite a gazillion, but close.
Well, $65M advance alone would need about 10M copies to defray. Which means another 5M copies to defray. Then there is advertising and actual production costs. Shipping. Warehousing.
Figure about 20M to breakeven.
25M to feed the beast the way it’s used to be fed.
Of course it’s two books so they only need half as many true believers.
Maybe they expect to see another Obama campaign?
PRH really has 65 million to spend on books that will be in the $2 bin 6 months after publication?
This is why trad pubs are circling the drain.
More like the ‘We’ll have to pay to someone to take them to the recycling place’ bin.
No worries on these ‘earning out’.
At 3-5K each, how many new writers might have had a chance if they weren’t ‘donating’ that money to Obama?
13,000.
Hmmm…
They’ve been putting out 17,000 titles a year but they’ve been dropping authors recently so they might’ve been freeing up cash for this deal. 😉
You’re assuming this is actually a book deal, and not a way to funnel money to politicos.
+1
Business is about prestige, first and foremost. Not cash flow.
From “Million Dollar Book Club” at Entertainment Weekly:
“Given the amount of books a publisher needs to sell in order to make a profit, it’s possible that none of these novels will actually make money. But Random House publisher Susan Kamil believes that the honor of having a sparkling literary talent on your list can offset any financial loss. ‘We want to have the best writers in the world at Random House,’ Kamil says. ‘Sometimes those writers come at a premium—and we have paid it.'”
Yeah, circling the drain. And yes, most likely a bribe, quid pro quo, or disguised tax write-off. The last author (to my knowledge) who fetched a $65,000,000 advance was Mary Higgins Clark, but for four books.
Good for them.