Record-breaking auction for Obamas’ book deal tops $65m

Penguin Random House will pay more than $65m for the global rights to two books to be written separately by Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, after a blockbuster auction that set a record for US presidential memoirs.

The company declined to comment on the fee it had agreed with the Obamas. But people briefed on the auction, which attracted interest from HarperCollins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and CBS’s Simon & Schuster, confirmed it would exceed $65m.

Markus Dohle, chief executive of Penguin Random House, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to continue our publishing partnership with the president and Mrs Obama. With their words and their leadership, they changed the world.”

Penguin Random House published Mr Obama’s previous three books. While the Obamas are writing separate books, they sold the rights jointly.

The deal eclipses those secured by departing US presidents. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House, paid $15m for the rights to Bill Clinton’s 2004 memoirs My Life when he left the White House, while George W Bush made an estimated $10m from his book Decision Points, which was published by Crown.

Robert Barnett, Mr Obama’s literary agent, fielded the offers on behalf of the former president.

A spokesman for Mr Obama declined to comment.

Mr Barnett has become a power player for politicians seeking big book deals. He brokered Tony Blair’s £4.5m contract with Penguin Random House, which is jointly owned by UK education group Pearson and Bertelsmann, the German media company. Pearson last month said it had exercised an option to sell its stake in the company; discussions between the two sides are said to be ongoing.

The Obamas have kept a low profile since leaving the White House. They recently took a holiday in Palm Springs and visited Necker Island, where Mr Obama kite-boarded with Sir Richard Branson.

Having gained a reputation as a writer before entering the White House with his best-selling books Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope, Mr Obama’s story of his two terms as president was always likely to attract huge offers from publishing groups.

But the prospect of a joint book deal with his wife propelled the auction to record-breaking levels and has set the publishing industry alight.

Mr Obama earned $8.8m from The Audacity of Hope, a 2006 bestseller, and the children’s book Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, according to a report by Forbes. Sales of his first memoir, Dreams from My Father, published in paperback in 2004, brought in a further $6.8m in royalties, according to Forbes.