Penguin Random
House has landed a deal to publish two forthcoming memoirs by former U.S.
President Barack Obama and the former first lady, Michelle Obama, with one
volume to be written by each, the publishing company said on Tuesday.
According to InformationNigeria, Terms of the agreement, in which Penguin Random House acquired
worldwide publication rights for the two books, were not disclosed, but
Financial Times said the Obamas may have set a record deal in excess of
$60million.
But in keeping
with their past practice, the Obamas plan to donate a “significant portion of
their author proceeds to charity,” including the Obama Foundation, the
publisher said in a statement.
The deal followed
a heated auction for global rights to the two books with bidding that reached
more than $60 million, a record sum for U.S. presidential memoirs, the
Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the sales process.
By comparison,
fellow Democrat and former President Bill Clinton earned $15 million for rights
to his 2004 memoir “My Life” after he left office, while Obama’s immediate
predecessor, Republican George W. Bush, reaped some $10 million from his book
“Decision Points,” according to the Financial Times. Those books were published
by Penguin Random House division Knopf and by Crown, respectively.
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