After a bidding war over the rights to Former President Barack Obama and Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s upcoming books, Penguin Random House has won with a record-breaking $65 million dollar deal.
As reported by Bloomberg, Penguin Random House will publish separate books from the Obamas and their payment is more than another any other U.S. presidential memoirs. The heated auction concluded on Tuesday between HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan.
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Penguin Random House is responsible for publishing Obama’s previous books The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, Dreams From My Father and Of Thee I Sing, which reports show have sold more than four million copies. Financial disclosures show that Obama earned more than $10 million from those titles.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama is no stranger to writing either, as she’s authored books like In Her Own Words and American Grown.
A spokeswoman for Penguin Random House did not specify to The New York Times as to whether the books would be memoirs or not.
“We are absolutely thrilled to continue our publishing partnership with President and Mrs. Obama,” Penguin Random House Chief Executive Officer Markus Dohle said in a statement.
“Each of their books global publishing events of unprecedented scope and significance,” he added.
In the announcement, the publisher stated that one million books will be donated to charity, including the Obama Foundation. The pair of books will be published separately, however, no official release date has been announced yet. Multiple reports have speculated that the books will be released sometime in 2018.
Whenever they’re released, we’ll be the first ones in line to grab a copy.
