Hillary gets $8 million deal for White House memoir

Senator-elect Clinton talks with CNN's Larry King December 11

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New York Sen.-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed Friday to accept an $8 million book deal with publisher Simon & Schuster for a memoir on her eight tumultuous years in the White House, sources said.

The huge advance is the highest ever paid to a member of Congress and comes close to matching the $8.5 million Pope John Paul II received in 1994, a non-fiction record. The first lady's advance beats the $7.1 million received this summer by General Electric Chiarman Jack Welch.

Reports of a big advance being negotiated for the Clinton book already had some watchdog groups grumbling that it could give the appearance that someone is cashing in.

The Clinton camp has maintained that the book contract was reached after a competitive auction involving eight publishers who trekked to Washington to hear a pitch by the first lady in the White House.

"The book's value is being determined by the market," Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said Thursday.

Simon and Schuster has published Clintons other three books: "It Takes a Village," which outlined her views on children's and family issues, "Dear Buddy Dear Socks" a collection of letters written to the first pets and most recently "An Invitation to the White House" a tribute to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Simon and Schuster is owned by Viacom, which owns the CBS television network. They have interests in Washington. Among them is fighting a federal regulation that prohibits one company from owning stations that reach more than 35 percent of U.S. households.

Among the other bidders for the memoir were Talk Miramax and Penguin Books.

The book will be published in early 2003.

Other senators have written books, but they usually generate little money or broad appeal. The man Clinton is replacing, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has written 18 scholarly books. In his most recent financial disclosure form, Moynihan reported earning $944.68 in royalties.

Vice President Al Gore was paid $8,500 last year for a new forward for his book, "Earth in the Balance," which he wrote as a senator, and $850 for reprints for an introduction to "Silent Spring," Rachel Carson's classic environmental book warning of the dangers of pesticides.

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