Obama Signs Book Deal For Post-Presidency Book

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, a best-selling author who received royalties of $2.5 million last year, will get hundreds of thousands more for a youth-oriented version of his published memoir and will write a nonfiction book after he leaves the White House.

Obama agreed in early January to deliver the new book after he leaves office. The White House said he already had a deal with Crown Publishing Group to write another book, and agreed Jan. 9 that he would produce the book after his term ends.

About a week later, shortly before his inauguration, Obama agreed to a $500,000 advance for an abridged version of "Dreams From My Father" that would be suitable for middle school or young adult readers, according to a new personal financial disclosure report released this week.

Obama will get $250,000 of the advance and the publisher will get the other half, a White House spokesman said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name.

Obama didn't indicate how much he might get for writing the new nonfiction book, whose subject is yet to be determined. Terms likely would be negotiated at the end of his time in office. Former President Bill Clinton got $15 million for his book, "My Life."

Obama received nearly $2.5 million in book royalties last year for his two best-selling works _ "Dreams From My Father," which was written before he was elected to the Senate from Illinois, and "The Audacity of Hope."

Obama's financial disclosure report released this week covers January through Nov. 16, 2008, when he left the Senate. It shows that he and his wife, Michelle, have $1.3 million to $5.7 million in assets, which does not include their Chicago home. In addition, they have up to $550,000 in college savings plans for their two daughters.

The Obamas' holdings include $1 million to $5 million in Treasury bills purchased in October. They sold $500,000 to $1 million in Treasury notes last April, according to the report.

The book deal was first reported Wednesday by Congressional Quarterly.

Comments

[ApolloSpeaks]

THE TITLE OF OBAMA'S BOOK

The Joys of Teleprompting.

[StillIRise]

The title of Bush's book:

"Not Even A Teleprompter Helped!"

[ApolloSpeaks]

Chapter 5 of Obama's book will read: How I Punked Out of having a News Conference with Gordon Brown out of Fear of Looking Puny.

[rustygriswold]

It's going to be called the Holy Bible-The Obama Years

[Soundofthunder]

Try this for a title:

"The Rebirth of the American Dream"

SOT

[rustygriswold]

"Hope and Change-and Other Lies I Told"
should be a ten volume set.

[Obamalicious]

How about "My Struggles"?

[ApolloSpeaks]

How about The Death of the Utopian Dream?

[unity08]

At least it wont be written with an "Authoritarian" voice like W's. lol

[rustygriswold]

Hit the Ground Stumblin'

[jane gutowski]

obama really is a hero like yesterday when he was campaigning again for more money he said "i take full responsibility". wow he is taking responsibility for his mess. and the throngs of obama worshippers were in the background yelling "OBAMA OBAMA' over and over and now we hear he is writing a book, too. it just sends chills.

[Dupree]

To: janegutowski:

I need to CORRECT you on your quote.."wow, he is taking responsibility for "his mess." First of all, this is NOT his mess. He did not write the contracts of AIG for these instruments were drafted long before he took office. He is trying to fix a mess he did not made. He took the responsibility for the bonus misstep because he stated "the buck stops with him." He was making the acknowledgement that as the leader...he is ultimately responsible for the quality of oversight that was given over the bonus issue. He is NOT writing a book....he is revising an already existing book "Dreams of my Father" to make it more appropriate for middle school-aged children. And all of this is to take place after he leaves office. He is an author and so what is so shocking that a best selling author is entering an agreement to write books? Last I heard...most presidents that leave office...write books? The only unique thing about this particular president is that he already written two bestsellers and is offered a writing agreement before he took office. I appreciate the intelligence and forthcoming characteristics of this president thus far.

[SantaFeConservative]

It is pretty creepy, isn't it? I get chills too .. but not the same ones the wosrhipers do.

[dagnome27]

W just announced his memoirs because ... he JUST NOW remembered what he DID during his Presidency. Not sure we need a BOOK to remind us, though, since we're living the fallout of 26+ years of Republican INCOMPETENCE in Washington.

[fumes2]

W was President 26 years?

[StillIRise]

" ... 26+ years of Republican INCOMPETENCE in Washington."

REPUBLICAN incompetence!!!!

[destruct1]

I love that headline "O......" like... as in ZERO.

[LiberTLover]

Awww, how cute, is that as high as you can count? Bless your heart.

[amistad]

I love that headline "O..." like... as in HERO

I also love the word tr0ll like....as in LOOSER....

[rustygriswold]

amistard, A like in A-hole

[protagonia]

Amistad,

I am an ally and say this with the deepest respect for the good things you have said here in the past-

It is spelled "loser". "Looser" means not as tight.

From one good American to another.

Be armed well in the war of words and ideas.

We must have each others' backs.

[biglover]

Good one Amistad. Wonderful

[secret38b]

His screen name says it all............

[PuppaX]

What the hell was he thinking? It's one thing that the GOP never puts down their guns; it's quite another to hand them ammo!

[rustygriswold]

Breaking news! Obama breaks ground on his Presidential Library tomorrow.

[LiberTLover]

And Bush will be putting 'My Pet Goat' and a shredded copy of the Constitution in a shoe box and charging a nickel for people to come to his Presidential road side stand.

[amistad]

Breaking news! President Obama has no problems raising the money needed to build his Library!

[fumes2]

Well look who just woke up, it's amistard

[Soundofthunder]

And he'll have no trouble finding a school willing to dedicate land to said structure.

SOT

[Servility]

Let's tax his $2.5M in royalties at 90%.

[amistad]

Let's tax your brain cells to come up with a post that makes sense.

[Soundofthunder]

Because Obama got bailout money under TARP or money directly from the Fed approved by Paulson and Bernanke? It must be nice to live in a fantasy realm where conservatives do no wrong and fluffy bunnies whisper sweet talking points in your ears.

SOT.

[rustygriswold]

Looks like Obama is more concerned with his economy than the US economy.

[MESGAIN26]

AWW REASON YOU SHOULD GET A EDUCATION EH!

[protagonia]

MESGAIN26 See Profile I'm a Fan of MESGAIN26 permalink
AWW REASON YOU SHOULD GET A EDUCATION EH!
----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­------

It is "GET AN EDUCATION". Not "GET A EDUCATION". But you did spell "Education" correctly, so good for you!

[dontvote4him]

Hopefully the book will be out in 4 years.

[tjc7513]

Great way to look at it. Not that I would buy it, I just hope I have enough money to buy it when it comes out...

[StillIRise]

I doubt it. The book will be written AFTER he leaves office, so we have at least 8 years to wait ... unless of course a miracle happens, and he follows in the footsteps of FDR and is given a third or even a fourth term!

[RenoSage]

Constitutional amendment precludes more that 2 terms.

[Soundofthunder]

Hopefully you and other conservatives will learn to count. Two terms = 8 years, not 4.

SOT

[tjc7513]

Change you can believe in. All the past Presidents have waited till they leave office to cash in, Bill Clinton set the bar so high for Obama, Obama had to get a head start....

[rustygriswold]

Are you kidding, Obama cashed in before he was President!!!!

[tjc7513]

Most President Elects chose to work on their cabnet, issues, breifings, we now know where this guy is really at....

[Ty90]

Aw...that picture of Obama is just precious, he's so adorable.

[fumes2]

"he's so adorable."

So are puppies, but they shouldn't be President either.

[amistad]

McCain and Palin would have done a much better job!!!!
They ROCK!!!!

[randman2009]

He should have used this time in January to start interviewing candidates for top treasury posts, what with the huge recession going on. Instead he chose to meet with publishers and negotiate a book deal. Meanwhile, 2 months later, 17 of the top spots are open while the economy is falling to pieces.

Time well spent, Mr. President. We see where your priorities are.

[chronic]

Get lost gopigger.

[tjc7513]

Don't like the truth?

[helmboy]

so much bitterness here, such tiny minds. :) must be tough to be a bushie and know that all their hero could produce would require crayons ...

[StillIRise]

How much time do you think it took to negotiate a book deal - which was very likely done not by the parties involved but by their lawyers - BEFORE President Obama took office?

What bearing does that time factor have on what President Obama was doing in respect to his impending inauguration and the responsibilities that he knew he would be facing as President?

Are you suggesting that as his lawyers negotiated the book deal, Obama was merely sitting around waiting for them to finish negotiating before he could do anything else? His cabinet selections were named sooner than any President before him had named theirs, which indicates that this, among other things relative to his presidency, is exactly what he was working on.

Who was President 2 months BEFORE Obama took office, when the economy began falling to pieces? What was HE doing about it?

[randman2009]

Its called a lame duck presidency for a reason. Blaming your predecessor, as Obama loves to do, solves nothing.

Apparently it took a lot of time to do the book deal because were in the midst of a crisis with no treasury department! Why isnt that done? Its inexcusable.

[reason2008]

Bush is gone! Barry is here now!

For someone who is media savvy, this is a stupid move. He's either arrogant or naive.

How would he think this would be perceived to people losing their job?

[MESGAIN26]

ITS HIS PROGATIVE WE DIDN'T GET HERE IN TWO MONTHS DID WE FUNNY HOW FOLKS EXPECT OVER NIGHT MIRCALS

[ArthurTwoShedsJackson]

President BO's books = Thought provoking, inspiring work ACTUALLY WRITTEN BY BO.

Miserable Failure's planned book = ghostwritten "authoritarian" version of My Pet Goat barely fit for use as outhouse TP when camping.

[rustygriswold]

I can't wait for another book. I've already used up his first two books to line my bird's cage. Birds produce quite of bit of "ArthurTwo­ShedsJacks­on" between changing and paper in the books are super absorbent.

[rustygriswold]

edit- is

[RenoSage]

When one can't understand the written language one lines the bird cage with pages from best selling books.

[StillIRise]

In reading the posts on this thread and others, and even before President Obama's election, it's clear that the Republicans and/or their trolls resent:

-President Obama's intelligence
-President Obama's attractiveness
-President Obama's ability to get things done
-President Obama's appeal to Americans and to the world community
-the striking contrast between President Obama and President Bush

They also resent:
-Michelle's beauty, intelligence and appeal
-the attractiveness of the Obama family

They're discombobulated because he's not who Rush and Sean told them he'd be, yet they still want to believe Rush and Sean, so they stick to the old talking points anyway. They realize that his book deal is another plus (especially compared to Bush's book), so they say silly things like, he doesn't have time to sign a book deal! Or they go completely off topic and try to revise the legacy of the Bush administration! They just don't want to like or accept President Barack Obama, but they're running out of reasons to justify their hostility.

[ArthurTwoShedsJackson]

Paging "rustygriswold" - Mr. "rustygriswold" - you're being paged to provide another quarter-witted remark to the above post which has just very accurately and articulately put your heroes RL and SH in the gutter where they belong!

[rustygriswold]

Sorry, were you calling me? I was in the bathroom taking one heck of a "ArthurTwo­ShedsJacks­on". Believe me, the smell was terrible

[looneybin]

so you voted for obama because you thought he was super dooper attractive?

[ArthurTwoShedsJackson]

Reading comprehension = F

[StillIRise]

I'm sorry ... did I say or imply that in my post???

I didn't think so ... I don't even use words like "super dooper!"

In fact, there is nothing stated in my post at all that either explicitly or implicitly expresses my reasons for voting for President Obama. But as I said, when Republicans and/or their trolls cannot reasonably or rationally justify their hostility for President Obama, they're reduced to gibberish ...

[rustygriswold]

Barack is soooooooo dreamy.

[jbeach]

That and points 1, 3, 4 and 5.

Which are 4 more points than GWB certainly had. And arguably 5.

[dontvote4him]

or superfly

[alewis14151]

Loophole? What part of "advance" includes a loophole?