Barack and Michelle Obama received $60 mil, while Bill Clinton received $15 mil
(cropped, Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
Joe Biden has sold his presidential memoir’s publishing rights for around $10 million, falling millions of dollars short of the sums that the Obamas and Bill Clinton received for their memoirs, according to a report Wednesday evening.
Biden sold the worldwide rights to his memoir, which does not yet have a publishing date, to the Hachette Book Group for “an advance in the range of $10 million,” the Wall Street Journalreported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Biden’s payout is significantly less than those of his predecessors. In 2017, former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama received $60 million for the rights to their memoirs, according to reports at the time. Former president Bill Clinton was paid $15 million for his 2004 memoir My Life. President Donald Trump did not publish a memoir after his first term.
The news comes as reports indicate the Biden family has faced tightening finances following the former president’s exit from public office. “Biden, Inc., needs a source of revenue,” journalist Mark Halperin said in May, citing a source familiar with the Biden family. “The trough is empty, the spigot has shut down. They need a way to get back in the game to make big money to have the grandchildren fed and clothed and flown first-class.”
