Sarah Palin's book deal a done deal with HarperCollins

Word just in by snow machine that Alaska's Republican Governor and most famous hockey mom Sarah Palin has signed a book deal with HarperCollins.

She'll have a collaborator but wants to write much of it herself for publication a year from now.

The advance figure was not revealed, but safe to say given her celebrityhood and controversy and loyal advocates and venom-filled non-advocates, it's significant. Certainly sufficient to buy a few winters' worth of snow machine gas and oil.

Palin was represented in the book deal by high-powered DC attorney Robert Barnett, who said HarperCollins was "first and fervent" in its pursuit of Palin's story. Last winter Palin laughed off a reported $11 million book deal as, well, "laughable."

Book advances are usually paid half on signing and half on acceptance of the finished manuscript with the agent usually receiving at least 15% off the top. Palin's book income would eventually be reported as part of her required state financial disclosures.

 "There have been so many things written and said through mainstream media that have not been accurate," Palin told Sean Cockerham of the Anchorage Daily News today, "and it will be nice through an unfiltered forum to get to speak truthfully about who we are and what we stand for and what Alaska is all about."

Whatever she could possibly be talking about is a complete mystery.

Her daughter really did have the governor's baby and then miraculously get pregnant again herself while her mother was leading bookburning parties wearing $150,000 dresses while being unable to read a single newspaper and her husband was having a campaign affair with a videographer.

Oh, no, wait. That was one of the unsuccessful Democratic candidates whose wife is selling her book these days.

HarperCollins' chief, Brian Murray, said, "Gov. Palin is one of the most charismatic, inspiring and controversial figures to appear on the national political stage for many years.

"She has a fascinating story to tell, and we look forward to publishing what surely will be a captivating book." HarperCollins, BTW, is owned by Rupert Murdoch. So which TV network named Fox do you think gets first crack at next year's interviews?

Palin said she's eager to put her journalism education and background to work and has been keeping personal journals, especially in the past year.

"I just really look forward to being able to relate to people through this book, those who are anxious to hear stories about people who are facing similar challenges perhaps," Palin told the newspaper.

"That's balancing work and parenting -- in my case work does mean running a state, and family involves a large and fun and colorful ordinary family that really has been thrust into maybe some extraordinary circumstances."

And having her own book version out wouldn't hurt any political chances of Palin's 2010 state re-election campaign and, who knows, maybe some kind of national effort after that.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credits: Associated Press; Stephanie's Mom (Palin poses with a little girl named Stephanie who approached her in an Anchorage grocery recently).

Comments

[Literate Reader]

The state of being famous or celebrated is "celebrity." There is no such word as celebrityhood. Did you fail ESL? Quit watching TV and read a book.

(That word exists here. You just saw it in print.)

[Benighse]

This is going to be the best Republican coloring book yet!!! You couldn't ask for better coloring book picture story lines...."Mommy, how do polar bears have babies? They get married first." "Mommy, who is dick cheney? He is a good shot." "What's that black puddle on the icecap and in the ocean? That's Beverly Hillbillies gold, and it will get us to Hollywood someday."....You get the picture, now get your crayons....If she writes like she thinks and talks, just entitle the book: "DYSFUNCTIONAL--MY LIFE IS THIS BOOK!"

[Laura]

It cannot come soon enough! I hope she calls it, THE AUDACITY TO POINT OUT THE CONSTITUTION IS NOT A SOCIALIST DOCUMENT

[Chris W.]

At last, a pop-up book about politics - should be fascinating.

[Jackuul]

So, will it be ghost written, or in her actual handwriting? I hope it is the latter, I enjoy a good crayon book.

[John Frum]

Having seen what happens when Sarah isn't working from someone else's script, there's no way she has the intelligence to pull off writing "much of it herself." Just how much she writes and how much is ghostwritten, or edited by someone else, will be clear. Key Palin words and pet cliche Palin phrases, such as "back in the day" and using "progress" as a transitive verb, will be a dead giveaway. I'm betting there won't be many.

[Sacto]

Lets see, big print, few pages, and the rest is a coloring book of how Alaska became safer after men killed all the dinosaurs 5000 years ago.

[The Gatekeeper]

Those who underestimate Sarah Palin do so at their own complete and utter peril.

You have been warned.

[Trev]

Who cares ??!!

[Aaron]

To bad Palin is a socialist but she's to stupid to know it

[Reaganite Republican Resistance]

If Governor Sarah Palin is SO silly and irrelevant, why the obsession?
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Clearly the left noted her appeal, and are out to eliminate the threat- it's not like it's not obvious.
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Palin has been more than a little bit successful in life while ignoring the left-wing feminist model... this helps to explain the extra dose of venom in the attacks.
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But these Alinsky-ites surely have reason to fear her. Palin is the most popular governor in the country... are all those people idiots?
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Alaska was a pretty corrupt system until she stepped in. Her reforms took on entrenched politicians (inc. Republicans), a mafioso-style union boss, and Big Oil.
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Wouldn't it have been nice if this snake Obama had been principled and brave enough to confront the corrupt Chicago Democratic Machine?
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Or shady political operators like Tony Rezko?
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Racist preachers?
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Instead of doing business with every last one of them?
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Go get em, Sarah- and don't mind the press, nobody will be listening to them anymore after the pending Obamamania implosion.
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http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/

[Inkslinger]

I think it would be interesting to have Katie Coric help Sarah with the book. Just sittin back and watchin that cat fight would be worth the price of admission. Sarah has become the Britney Spears of politics. Spare our nation, spare the Republican Party, spare the poor Alaskans. The only good thing about the book advance is that she will be able to buy those clothes from the RNC.This woman established a legal fund asking people to help with legal expenses knowing that she was about to receive a large book advance. How ethical is that, Sarah?

[Oprah]

You liberals are so funny! Go out and get a job so you can buy newspapers! Gobama has us all stocking up on survival goods and weapons. Why is Fox News so popular? Glenn Beck is on in seven minutes... gotta go.

[tlsmith1963]

Wow, the Republicans are really becoming a joke aren't they? They deserve a moron like Palin. And what's their new plan? To call my party the Democrat Socialist Party! They don't realize that after the joke the Republicans have made out of the capitalist system, most people would probably consider being called a socialist a compliment now.

[John Skookum]

Criticizing Sarah Palin for using a co-author is ridiculous.

Hillary Clinton used THREE ghost writers, then stiffed them on payment.

Profiles in Courage, the book that won a Pulitzer and propelled JFK to the Presidency, was actually written entirely by a lickspittle Kennedy family flunky.

Obama's Dreams of my Father is so much better written than the small amount of stilted bilge he produced prior to it that a manuscript editor named Jack Cahill did a formal stylistic and linguistic analysis. He is 80 to 90 percent certain that it was ghost-written by Bill Ayers the terrorist bomber, who is in fact an exceptionally skilled writer.

How many people knew Obama's first draft of the book was rejected by the publisher, who thought it was so bad they asked for their money back? How many people know that Obama admitted the book was finished on Ayers' "kitchen table"? How many people knew they shared an office on the third floor at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge?

If you didn't know that, then maybe you should be wishing the mainstream media had done its job instead of sending 400 reporters to sniff panties in Wasilla, and 20 satellite trucks to Joe the Plumber's house.

[machinerider]

She is bailing out on her state.... what will we do WHEN she bails out on our country?... are you a celebrity? or more than that... a leader maybe?

[kendra8478]

Palin shouldn't be allowed to speak in public or "write" a book until she retakes her high school English classes. I would rather have my dog in office than have her in any other office besides the Department of Social Services line. There are too many things in her life that have not been addressed that as a public figure she should not be trying to hide.

[WBGSJ]

Funny thing about the "intellectual" crowd here. Their haute sophistication regarding an author they don't agree with is to reduce them to pre-kindergarten sattus. Funny thing that Cokey Roberts' revision of her new book espoused the need for women in politics but totally lacked the clarity of the current climate that exists for anyone desiring a seat at the political table. Because, dear ladies with hopes of entering that political arena there is NO ROOM at the table if your opinions DON'T agree w/those already there. They will chew you up and spit you out by any means necessary. And heaven forbid that you're NOT from the East Coast! But you see, all haute sophisitcates, "intellectua" doesn't always mean wordless snotiness. There are lots of people beyond Iowa that are smart -- they just don't need to hide behind the East Coast facade.

[Troy]

Wow! We may get a chance to have a real American write a book! The new american idol president proves just how far we have strayed from our founding fathers values. Most voters had no clue as to the real character of their candidate. The most popular, best funded celebrity won. That is a FACT! Obama did not win based on his qualifications or his character. Maybe next election we could have a singing competition to allow the idiots to choose their president. How shallow has America become?

[zippal]

Palin - a sell out

[PalinSick]

Too bad her book will go through the editing process by Harper. Otherwise, Jay Leno and the late night show hosts will have more jokes for us to laugh at her "grandiose" stupidity. "If I die, so be it...."

[GCAMP]

ha you people are funny.
Instead of bashing Palin maybe you should all look to our new president, who hasn't provided any jobs to Americans. Statistic prove we're even worse off than before. He spends more time on the TV greeting people, and showing up at ball games then spending time in America fixing all OUR problems..Have fun in the new world hes creating: companies run by the government. Ohh yeah, and health care run by the government. When they deny you one day don't cry about it.

[rhoda-ann]

Will there be recipes for Moose stew? And, pictures of, shopping for the ingredients....??????

[joel]

make fun of her all you want,but i will say this don't get made when she is the first woman president.

[Kenneth D. Beard]

Liberals are mostly inmature thats why they are hoping to find this as a comic or some type of coloring book. I beleive thats why they don't know anything about the bill of rights or the constitution