The word is that Tony Blair just sold the publishing rights to his memoirs for $9 million. He has not set the record, which apparently belongs to his friend Mr. Bill Clinton, whose memoir went for $10 million. The curious thing is, the book The Ghost by Robert Harris, a forthcoming Select Editions title, portrays a former British Prime Minister who does indeed get $10 million—Clinton money, in other words—for his upcoming memoir. Mr. Blair must be cursing his luck in matching neither his real counterpart across the water, nor even his fictional counterpart in a bestselling thriller. Poor guy. I mean, $9 million just doesn't go very far nowadays.
5 comments:
What's the highest advance ever paid for a book?
I just thought I'd add that the movie of The Ghost has just been announced, with Roman Polanski directing. This book is one hot property.
The editors here were unable to find out what the highest advance ever paid was. If anyone finds that out in their Google travels, let us know...
One more recent bit of info about advances: "Hillary Clinton got $8 million for her book in 2000, only $500,000 shy of the record advance for Pope John Paul II's book in 1994. If she got that much for just being first lady, imagine her haul for Vol. II if she gets elected president."
This isn't a single advance, but Ken Follett has scored over $50 million so far for his upcoming trilogy. Wish I was his agent . . .
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6498862.html?nid=2286&source=link&rid=173275812
Post a Comment