Regardless your political affiliation, there’s an undeniable fascination with former President Barack Obama and per Esther Newberg, co-head of ICM Partners’ publishing unit, this is one reason he is likely to get more than any president has with at least a $20 million advance for his memoir.
In fact, Newberg has no doubt in her prediction that Obama’s memoir will yield the highest advance ever paid to a president, citing that not only is he going to write his memoir himself, but that he’s already paved the road to his success as an author with previous books that did very well, including Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream and Of Thee I Sing: A Letter To My Daughters. Together these have sold more than 4 million copies and garnered more than $10 million in sales. Random House is the likely publisher for his memoir, though a bidding war is expected.
“Not only was he the first African-American president and hugely popular, he’s already shown us that he can, in fact, write,” Newberg said over the phone. “And, he’ll look like the King of Siam next to Trump.”
As reported by the New York Times, Obama could earn as much as $30 million with a two-to-three book post-presidency contract. “His is going to be easily the most valuable presidential memoir ever,” said Raphael Sagalyn of the ICM/Sagalyn Literary Agency. “And I think Michelle Obama has the opportunity to sell the most valuable first lady memoir in history.” Combined book contracts could yield them upwards of $45 million per predictions from literary agents and major publishers, which is more than enough to pay the estimated $22,000 monthly rent for the 8,200-square-foot, nine-bedroom Washington home they’re living in.
To give some context, Bill Clinton got $15 million, a presidential record at the time, for his book My Life, with sales of over 2.2 million copies, while George W. Bush got $7 million for Decision Points, which sold over 2.6 million copies, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Obama, 55, will be represented by Washington lawyer Bob Barnett and he’s already brought former White House director of speechwriting, Cody Keenan, on board to help.
“It’ll make us feel a lot better in this moment of time to read Obama’s book than to read the newspapers about Trump. At least that’s how I feel,” Newberg went on to say. “I predict huge audio book sales with that mellifluous voice of his. Can you imagine driving along in your car and hearing that voice…”
