Posted on 12/17/2004 5:29:36 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
Obama gets three-book deal worth $1.9 million December 17, 2004 — U.S. Sen.-elect Barack Obama, who saw a book he wrote a decade ago jump onto best seller lists after his keynote address to the Democratic National Convention this summer, has landed a three-book deal worth $1.9 million.
Crown Publishing Group and Random House Children's Books, both divisions of Random House Inc., announced Friday that Obama will write two books for adults as well as a children's book he will work on with his wife, Michelle, and their two young daughters.
"Writing is something that Senator Obama obviously enjoys as a hobby, and I think he looks forward to continuing to share both his story and his beliefs with people who are interested in reading those books," said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Obama will receive an $850,000 advance for each adult books and a $200,000 advance for the children's book. All proceeds from the children's book will go to charity, Gibbs said. He said the recipient had not yet been determined.
Although the deal technically does not fall under the Senate Ethics Committee's purview because Obama has not yet taken office, Gibbs said the senator-elect opted to make the contract contingent on the committee's approval. He said he did not know when that process would begin.
Obama, 43, will become the sole black U.S. senator and only the fifth in history when he is sworn in next month.
The first book, scheduled for publication in spring 2006, will focus on Obama's political convictions and his journey from law school to community activism to elected office.
"Today, when I see the divisions in this country, when I see unfairness and injustice, when I see misunderstanding or the enormous empathy deficit that damages so much of our politics, I have to do something about it," Obama said in a statement. "It's a lifetime journey and it is the basis for this book."
The children's book, also scheduled for release in 2006 under the Random House imprint Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, will rely on Obama's experiences as a self-described "skinny young kid with big ears and the funny name" who grew up to be a U.S. senator.
The topic and publication date of the third book have not been determined.
Powerful Washington attorney Robert Barnett represented Obama in the negotiations. Barnett also has negotiated book deals for President Clinton, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former CIA Director George Tenet.
Crown Publishing Group also published Obama's first book, "Dreams From My Father," which first went into print in 1995 and was re-released this July after the convention. It has spent 14 weeks on the New York Times best seller list for paperback nonfiction, with 350,000 copies in print.
Easy to make best-seller when it is required reading by the DNC and unions.
Don't get me started on this incestuous topic. Something I have a personal pet peeve with. :)
Let me guess: Jack and Jill went up the subsidy hill.
isn't this what they went after newt for????
A la Hitlery Clinton.
But his agent screwed up the sitcom and movie deal.
and Bernard Kerik went down in flames.
Newt was a member of Congress then. Obama, like Hillary, is just a senator-elect.
This is the type of news "dropped" on a Friday, since Saturday newspapers and TV news shows have a drop-off in viewers/readers. Plus this is the last Friday before Christmas Eve. Sneaky.
Yep....but Newt was a consevative Republican.
Oh, come on. If this were Mel Martinez or another Pubbie, we'd be fine with it.
I don't like Obama's politics, but I dont' see why this is a big deal.
Where's the BARF alert?
I wouldn't be....anyway, write of hire the ghostwriters to write the dang book....and skip the advance...if it sells, then Obama has every right to collect every dime of royalties. Royalties only come out of future sales anyway...
Unfairness and injustice as he skirts around the Senate rules? I've got an idea, Obama, take your 1.9 million and give it your favorite charity. If you and yours redistributed your own wealth instead of building it on the promise of distributing ours, I might actually take a minute and listen.
You have to know deep down that they're not going to tell you what really and truly went on, the whore deals they really struck to get their legislation through, the graft they took, the abuses of power they took. They can't tell you the super duper bi-partisan taxpayer-screwing deals that they put together (while pretending to hate each other in public and on TV) and they won't tell you about their non-stop lies it took to get them where they are.
Not only that, Obama is a newly elected senator, isn't he? What could he possibly have to say this early in his career with little experience?
Ah....Hillary Clinton's step son follows in her footsteps. He has learned a lot at his mother's knees.
Anyone smell a rat? Aren't they pushing this guy a little fast? Could it be that he will run with Hitlery or possibly be on the horizen for later? This is just like the rats. Let's bring in only those that have no real experience in life to run the country.
No more Hillary/ Billary OBAMA book deals that skirt election laws.
Ditto the Republicans.
But that will have a snowballs chance....
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