Obamas sign record book deal with Penguin Random House

This article is more than 12 months old

Mar 02, 2017 06:00 am

WASHINGTON: New York-based publisher Penguin Random House has won the book industry's most coveted contract: A deal to produce the memoirs of former president Barack Obama and ex-first lady Michelle Obama.

"The company has acquired world publication rights for two books, to be written by President and Mrs Obama respectively," the publisher said.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but bidding for the high-profile deal topped US$60 million (S$84.5 million), a record sum for US presidential memoirs, according to the Financial Times.

The deal was done by the same lawyer, Mr Robert Barnett, who represented former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

As part of the deal, the company will donate a million books in the Obama family's name to a charity.

The former president is already the author of two memoirs and a children's book. He has said he does not want to write a conventional blow-by-blow account of his time in the White House.