The NYT says that Republican presidential candidate and Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann will publish her memoir through Penguin’s Sentinel, according to “two people familiar with the negotiations.” Sentinel’s Will Weisser said “we have nothing to announce at this time, adding “we did have a wonderful meeting with her.”
Politico writes that Bachmann, who is represented by agent Alex Hoyt, was swayed by Penguin CEO David Shanks. As “a Republican and an observant Catholic — both rarities in New York’s publishing world — Shanks convinced Bachmann that, as a conservative himself, he’d be the right man to handle her book and that argument, the source said, made the difference.”
Thanks to former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who was famously forced to give up a $4.5 million advance from HarperCollins in 1994 after criticism of the deal, House rules prohibit any “advance payment on copyright royalties.” (Senators, on the other hand, are allowed to accept advances, though their ethics rules require that book deals have “usual and customary contractual terms.”)
The NYT says WSJ columnist John Fund will write the book along with Bachmann.