How to read "My Life."
1) Get the Book.
2) Go to the index
3) Look under "L" for "Lewinsky."
Bill Clinton Memoir Set for June Publication
First Printing of 'My Life' To Be 1.5 Million Copies
By Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 27, 2004; Page C01
"My Life" by Bill Clinton, the long-anticipated memoir of the former president, will be published in late June. The announcement was made yesterday by Sonny Mehta, president and editor-in-chief of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House.
An exact publication date has not been set. The first printing will be 1.5 million copies.
Knopf is planning on immense sales. The huge first printing puts Clinton's book in the same ballpark as Michael Crichton's mega-seller "Timeline," and pretty near the most recent volume of the "Left Behind" series, which had a first run of 1.9 million, according to Publishers Weekly. Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir, "Living History," had an initial printing of 1 million copies when it was published last June. On the day it appeared, it set a one-day sales record for a nonfiction book at Barnes & Noble stores. The book is now in paperback and still selling well.
How well Bill Clinton's book does, says Jim Milliot of Publishers Weekly, "of course will depend on what he has to say. But I think he's got as good a pre-pub buzz as I can remember in a long time."
Clinton, who reportedly received an advance in the neighborhood of $10 million for his autobiography, will be reading an abridged version of the book for Random House Audio.
"Bill Clinton tells an extraordinary story in 'My Life,' " Mehta said in a statement. "It is a riveting personal drama as well as a fascinating look at the American political arena over the past four decades. He talks with candor about his successes, as well as his setbacks, looking at both his career in public service and his life. It is the fullest and most nuanced account of a presidency ever written, and one of the most revealing and remarkable memoirs I have ever had the honor of publishing."
To begin priming the publicity pump, Clinton was scheduled to speak last night to the Random House sales force and in Chicago on June 3 to BookExpo America, the annual gathering of the American Booksellers Association, according to attorney Robert Barnett, who handles Clinton's literary endeavors.
"The president came up with the title," Barnett added.
The book has been edited, all along the way, by Robert Gottlieb, who has also worked with marquee writers such as Robert Caro, Katharine Graham and Toni Morrison. "Working with President Clinton has been a privilege and a pleasure," Gottlieb said in a statement, "and his book is an astonishment -- authentic, engaging, revelatory."
According to Barnett, Random House believes that Clinton's book will have global appeal. The former president will set out on a whirlwind, worldwide book tour.
The exact publication date has not been set, Barnett said, because Clinton and his advisers are still trying to figure out how to get the biggest publicity bang for the book.
Besides the on-sale date, there are other last-minute details to tend to, such as price, page count, jacket design and which TV shows will get the first interviews. "That's all still TK, as they say," said Paul Bogaards of Knopf. In journalistic lingo, TK stands for "to come."
Bogaards said that no one knows exactly how long the book will be because there is still editing to be done: "The manuscript is not complete. It's still being worked on."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company |
