Mark Halperin, John Heilemann Get Six Figure Deal To Co-Author Book About 2008 Campaign

Two magazine veterans, each on the campaign trail for nearly two decades, have snared a big-bucks deal from HarperCollins to write about the current presidential campaign pitting John McCain against Barack Obama.

John Heilemann at New York magazine and Mark Halperin at Time believe they first met back in 1996 covering the New Hampshire primaries.

Both have written extensively on political campaigns but it wasn't until they were both covering a McCain rally in Annapolis, Md., in early April that they began seriously toying with the idea of writing a book together.

"We were both finding that we had a mind meld on what we thought was important," recalled Heilemann.

The aim is not so much to write a political treatise describing every tic-tock of every primary contest as it is to grab the big picture with a colorful writing style, both authors said.

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