Looks like Laura Bush will beat her husband in publishing a book. The first lady is already in talks with different publishers who are bidding on her memoir.
Mrs. Bush will disclose details about her family life during her stay in the White House.
As for Prez George Bush, it seems everyone is hoping his popularity will increase over time so he’s going to wait about five years longer before he publishes his book.
Good luck with that! It will be a looooong wait.
Leading British literary agent Andrew Lownie says, “The Blairs pioneered this strategy and it is a great way of testing the waters. Mrs Bush is clearly a lot more popular than her husband at the moment and this is a way of serving up a story in a way that is palatable to the public. Also, of course, the public tend to mellow in their attitude to even the most hated political leaders over time.”
Mort Janklow, who represented Ronald Reagan, said: “The wives of presidents generally write books that have a greater public interest. Wives usually write from a personal point of view – instead of talking about government policy, they talk about when the dog came to the White House and had to be paper-trained. Husbands usually try to rewrite history.”
But according to Janklow, George should wait a bit longer to publish his memoir. He joked, “30 or 40 years might be good.”
And there’s a lot of money to be made in presidential memoirs.
Bill Clinton made $30 million from the sales of My Life and his follow-up, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. As for Hillary Clinton, she brought in at least $8 million for Living History.
Wonder how much money people will spend on Laura.
[Image via WENN.]