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George W. Bush Lands $7 Million Book Deal
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The Daily Beast's Lynn Sherr reports Crown Publishing Group will pay the former president $7 million to write his most important life lessons.
George W. Bush’s book deal, news of which broke yesterday, is valued at about $7 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. The sum is less than half what Bill Clinton was paid for his memoir, My Life, and less than the $8 million Hillary Clinton received.
The Associated Press reports the former president has already written 30,000 words of the book, to be published by Crown and tentatively called Decision Points, which will focus on his most important life lessons.
“I want people to understand the environment in which I was making decisions. I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me,” he told the AP.
Although Bush’s $7 million deal—which, like Clinton’s, was negotiated by Washington attorney Robert Barnett—the new book will not be a memoir: Instead of recounting his life story, he’ll write about a dozen personal and professional choices, including giving up drinking and picking Dick Cheney as his vice president.
The book is scheduled for release in 2010, after the publication of former first lady Laura Bush’s memoirs.
Lynn Sherr is a former ABC News correspondent, author of Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words and Tall Blondes, a book about giraffes. She is also co-editor of Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life. At ABC’s 20/20 news program, Sherr specialized in women's issues and social change, as well as investigative reports. Her most recent book, a memoir—Outside the Box: My Unscripted Life of Love, Loss and Television News—is just out in paperback.
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Lynn Sherr is a former ABC News correspondent, author of Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words and Tall Blondes, a book about giraffes. She is also co-editor of Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life. Her most recent book, a memoir—Outside the Box: My Unscripted Life of Love, Loss and Television News—is out in paperback.
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Lynn Sherr is a former ABC News correspondent, author of Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words and Tall Blondes, a book about giraffes. She is also co-editor of Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life. Her most recent book, a memoir—Outside the Box: My Unscripted Life of Love, Loss and Television News—is out in paperback.
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Lynn Sherr is a former ABC News correspondent, author of Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words and Tall Blondes, a book about giraffes. She is also co-editor of Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life. Her most recent book, a memoir—Outside the Box: My Unscripted Life of Love, Loss and Television News—is out in paperback.
scott1607
$7 million dollars for a coloring book?!
sippewissett
How many of the 30,000 words have more than one syllable? Isn't "My Pet Goat" his memoir? Will it show up as a decision-making moment when he sat riveted in place for 10 minutes while the Twin Towers fell? Bush is certainly entitled to write a justification for his decisions, but we are equally entitled to ignore his re-writing of history.
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Alexius
Lets see what he is going to say before making any judgement.
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http://alexius-locker.blogspot.com/
Sedona
I eagerly await President Bush's book. Especially if, as he says, it'll be about the options placed before him and the tough decisions he made based on those options. The very best speech he gave was the stem cell speech early in his presidency because he laid out the options before him and why he made the decision he did. I still and will continue to think the so-called MSM did a drive-by hit job on Bush and Cheney (like they did with Gov Palin and her family).
clarinetmama
How long does it take to write 30,000 words with a crayon?
Jimdandy
Most likely Bush's toughest decision was whether or not to take his head out of his butt. He decided not to. But on second thought maybe he didn't have enough info to make that decision since he couldn't find his butt even with both hands. He is one of those few people in history about whom it can truly be said that the world would been a better place had he never been born.
artbeefine
As I suspected- less than half of what Clinton got for his memoirs. This isn't a life story, so I suppose it wouldn't be as long or worth as much, but there isn't a market for Bush's life story.
Says Bush, "I want people to understand the environment in which I was making decisions. I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me." Now he cares about what the American people think?
camfield
Anyone doing an autobiography can conveniently paint any picture of himself that he desires. And, of course, Bush also can hire the best editors. I'm interested only in that I'd like to see how he excuses his ongoing total disregard for science and the environment, in favor of all sorts of pollution and rape of the ecosystem.
ginadem
I think it's going to be more a long the lines of a Berenstein Bears scratch and sniff. It was oringinally going to be a 3D version but they were afraid the chapter on water boarding would scare the kiddies.
dulaurence
A more appropriate subtitle: "How my decisions were made for me." I'll bet his trillions of dollars deficit that 100% of the text is casting blame everywhere but 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Crawford, TX.
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n--Y--zippy29sickandtired
All I can say is.... Seriously?! Wow! We really will pay for some stupid things in this country! Will anyone even read it???
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binkyl
Could I please have the chance to write my book about "W"? I could list all the powerful decisions (?) and policies (?) that came out of that administration. Perhaps the prudent thing to do, if, in fact, anyone would pay him - would be for him to turn the money back to the soldiers and their families that he put into harms way!
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