Michelle Obama, Hot Author?

Laura Bush is writing a children’s book with her daughter. Publishers in New York want Michelle Obama to write a grown-up book, by herself. Although her husband Barack has not yet secured the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Ms. Obama has been approached by “over a dozen” publishers so far, according to Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a communications director for Ms. Obama.

Most of the calls have been going through Robert Barnett, the D.C. lawyer who represented Ms. Obama’s husband when he was shopping The Audacity of Hope to publishers in late 2004. Mr. Barnett, who also works as Hillary Clinton’s debate coach and has brokered massive multimillion-dollar book deals for her and her husband, got Mr. Obama a three-book deal from Random House. One of those is a children’s book that will be published by Knopf (no word yet on when) and the other is a proper follow-up to Audacity for Crown, the contents of which will depend on what happens in the next seven months. (Continue Reading…)