Unlike the post-presidency Clintons, who took a year or two to begin accumulating their millions—it looks like the Obamas may get a big payday the moment the moving van pulls away from 1600 Pennsylvania.
Both President Obama and his wife Michelle are reportedly in talks to sign lucrative book deals valued between $20 million and $45 million, with literary agents scrambling to help the First Couple pen the “most important” and “most valuable” Presidential memoirs in history.
Some publishers who spoke to ABC News say the number could be smaller, depending on how President Obama is viewed once he leaves office, but still put the contract estimates at more than $10 million, for what would be Barack Obama’s fourth book.
The media is utterly beside itself with anticipation. The New York Times has already speculated that Obama will be the “most successful Presidential author since Teddy Roosevelt,” and are calling a biography that hasn’t even been written yet a “timeless work” on par with JFK’s Profiles in Courage.
Weirdly, though, the media seems to have no answer as to why Obama’s memoir could command $30 million more than George W. Bush’s (who earned $10 million and sold around 2 million copies) and $20 million more than Bill Clinton. Obama’s previous books have been bestsellers, but even Hillary Clinton, also a well-received, published author, only got $8 million for her tome.
While political memoirs often make the bestseller list, they don’t always make lots of money. Clinton, for example, had to buy back copies of Hard Choices to keep her numbers up.
Heat Street spoke to several literary agents, who also said the number would likely be closer to $10 million to $12 million, unless Barack Obama plans to pen several books for the same publisher. If the work is a two- or three-book series, he could earn closer to the $20 million figure. The contract could also include movie rights, rights to a television series or mini-series about his life, a speaking or book tour, or paid appearances.
Some agents suggested that there is stiff competition for Obama’s book because of what it could contain that’s above and beyond the content of a typical political memoir—from tidbits about his celebrity friends, to a more detailed look at his views on race relations.
They also suggested that the publishing world is shrinking and competition to land a guaranteed success like Barack Obama is getting fiercer. With book sales on the decline, a big name can ensure big sales, so they’re offering big bucks. Obama’s a proven bookseller—his books spent a combined 270 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, more than twice as long as the second best-selling President, Jimmy Carter (whose 20 books spent a total of 130 weeks on the bestseller list), and five times as long as Bill Clinton’s four-book total.
But regardless of how different Obama’s memoir would be, no literary agent we talked to thought Obama would get the $45 million for a single book, unless he were penning something on insider Beyonce secrets (he probably knows a few).
