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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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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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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.
$7 million dollars for a coloring book?!
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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Lets see what he is going to say before making any judgement.
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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).
How long does it take to write 30,000 words with a crayon?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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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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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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!
Awesome, some fuel for fires to keep the homeless warm.
HaHaHa, I can see the first page of the book now,
Spot, Dick, Jane & George got a ball, Spot got the ball, George said hello to Jane and said hi to Dick and Spot. Dick and george went up the hill, Jane and Spot came down the hill and Spot got the ball. (Chapter 2) Dick told me to go to war and to kill Arabs. George told Jane to look at all people in the USA. George told spot to kill Arabs 2. $7,000,000.00 for the new George book, Woweeee boyyyyyy
And here I thought this country was moving forward. It amazes me how ignorant some of you are. Regardless of your personal opinions, he is a former President of this country. Bush received less money because he was not involved in the scandals the Clintons were. Regardless Bush made the decisions Clinton refused too make because he was too busy with his personal crap. As a veteran of this war and married to a current soldier, I still believe the right choice was made by going to war. History repeats itself. 20 or 30 years from now it will be looked at differently. You all blame Bush because you hide behind the simple fact that Clinton truely failed.
Sedona sezs "I eagerly await President Bush's book.
And, while you wait for someone to read it to you, you can practice coloring between the lines.
The idea of Bush making decisions is absurd. He made decisions based on his family's interests and those who help his family. To find out the true story, read Russ Baker's Family of Secrets. It disclosed the network of money and power that surrounds this family, including CIA. That a publisher would pay $7 million for this nonsense only confirms that power creates influence, which brings forth money. Why Americans keep buying into this is beyond belief. This is a guy who was always incapable of making his own living who was made president by people who understand that he would do what he was told. End of story.
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