Barack and Michelle Obama signed a $65 million deal with Penguin Random House for two books. Laura Miller ran down some numbers:

• Bill Clinton’s (single) book post-Presidential deal was for $15 million, and George Bush got $10 million.
• The publisher probably won’t breakeven on sales in the US alone. Once Europe is included – where more books are bought than in America, and where Obama’s Presidency was more popular – things should turn profitable.
• Barack Obama might command a high price because he was a reasonably successful author even before he became President. His post-Presidential book might actually be good.
• But it’s unlikely that many of the people buying the book will read it. Presidential auto-biographies are more symbols of political leanings to be prominently displayed on the bookshelf, than they are serious reading material.

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