List of largest book deals

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This page provides a list of the largest deals for books and book series to date. It differentiates from the list of best-selling books in that book deals are secured before the book is released, and often before the book is completed. The books are listed according to the highest book deal estimate as reported in reliable, independent sources.

Contents

Bill Clinton.jpg
Britney Spears 2013 (Straighten Crop).jpg
Politician Bill Clinton (left, pictured in 1993), and singer Britney Spears (right, pictured in 2013) hold the highest two spots for largest individual book deals.

American authors hold the record for the largest book deals made for individual books (Bill Clinton and Britney Spears), and for book series (James Patterson and Barack and Michelle Obama). While Patterson's book deal with Hachette Book Group is by far the largest for a book series, Patterson has disputed the reported amount.

Contrary to popular belief, J. K. Rowling's advances for the individual Harry Potter books or series overall do not appear on this list. For the first two books in the series (1997's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and 1998's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ), she received an advance of £2,000 apiece. [1] Rowling's later book The Casual Vacancy , released in 2012 and not affiliated with the Harry Potter series, does appear on this list.

List of largest deals for individual books

These book deals share some facts in common: The top five book deals have been memoirs and their authors have all been American.

Note: book deals are listed at the time the book deal was made and not adjusted for inflation.

BookAuthorAuthor nationalityOriginal languageFirst publishedApproximate dealGenre
My Life Bill Clinton AmericanEnglish2004$15 million [2] Memoir
The Woman in Me Britney Spears AmericanEnglish2023$15 million [3] Memoir
Hard Choices Hillary Clinton AmericanEnglish2014$14 million [2] Memoir
Born to Run Bruce Springsteen AmericanEnglish2016$10 million [2] Memoir
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo Amy Schumer AmericanEnglish2016$9 million [2] Memoir
Crossing the Threshold of Hope Pope John Paul II Vatican City Italian1994$8.5 million [2] Nonfiction
Life Keith Richards BritishEnglish2010$7.3 million [2] Memoir
Back to Blood Tom Wolfe AmericanEnglish2008$7 million [4] Novel
The Maramon Convention Abraham Verghese AmericanUnknownNot yet released$5 million [4] Nonfiction
The Casual Vacancy J. K. Rowling BritishEnglish2012Between $2—$8 million [2] Crime fiction

List of largest deals for books series

Note: book series deals are listed at the time the deal was made and not adjusted for inflation.

Book seriesNumber of books in seriesAuthor(s)Author(s) nationalityOriginal languageFirst publishedApproximate dealGenre
17 books (11 adult; 6 children's)17 James Patterson AmericanEnglish2009$100—150 million [1] [a] Crime fiction
Becoming and A Promised Land 2 Michelle Obama (Becoming)
Barack Obama (A Promised Land)		AmericanEnglish2018 (Becoming);
2020 (A Promised Land)		$65 million+ [6] Memoirs
Century trilogy ( Fall of Giants , Winter of the World , and Edge of Eternity )3 Ken Follett BritishEnglish2008 (Fall of Giants);
2012 (Winter of the World);
2014 (Edge of Eternity)		$50 million [1] Historical fiction
The Downing Street Years and The Path to Power 2 Margaret Thatcher BritishEnglish1993 (The Downing Street Years);
1995 (The Path to Power)		 £3.5m [1] Memoirs

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ While realiable sources list this amount as $100—150 million, Patterson has disputed this amount, stating it "isn't close". Patterson declined to say whether the amount was too high or too low. [5]

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Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. and J. K. Rowling v. RDR Books, 575 F.Supp.2d 513 was a copyright lawsuit brought on 31 October 2007 by the media company Warner Bros. and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling against RDR Books, an independent publishing company based in Muskegon, Michigan. Lawyers for Rowling and Time Warner argued that RDR's attempt to publish for profit a print facsimile of The Harry Potter Lexicon, a free online guide to the Harry Potter fictional universe, constituted an infringement of their copyright and was not protected by the affirmative defense of fair use. The trial was held from 14–17 April 2008 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In September 2008, the court ruled in Rowling's favor, and publication of the book was blocked. In 2009, RDR Books released an edited volume, eliminating the problematic long quotes found to be infringing.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cain, Sian (March 1, 2017). "Printing money: 10 of the richest book deals of all time". The Guardian. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tanjeem, Namera (February 24, 2020). "10 Of The Biggest Book Deals In History". Book Riot. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  3. ↑ Voytko, Lisette (February 22, 2022). "Britney Spears' $15 Million Book Deal Shows Why Success Is The Best Revenge". Forbes. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Temple, Emily (May 8, 2018). "A Brief History of Seven-Figure Book Advances". LitHub. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  5. ↑ Donahue, Deirdre; Wilson, Craig; Minzesheimer, Bob. "Book Buzz: What's new on the list and in publishing". USA Today. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  6. ↑ Grady, Constance (March 2, 2017). "What the Obamas' $65 million book advance actually means". Vox. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
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