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The white hot auction for the rights to former Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan's memoirs nudged into the $8 million range late yesterday.
At the end of the second full day of the frenzied auction, Greenspan is already closing in on the second highest advance of all time - the $8.5 million paid to Pope John Paul II in 1994 for his memoir, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope."
Just an $8 million advance would leave him in a flat-footed tie for third place with Hillary Rodham Clinton, who snagged that amount from Simon & Schuster for her White House memoir, "Living History."
With no clear winner in sight, the bidding is expected to continue through the weekend, with several key bidders in England for the London Book Fair.
Late yesterday, the publishing world was abuzz with reports that Simon & Schuster had dropped out along with Warner Books, which paid $7.1 million for ex-GE Chairman Jack Welch's autobiography, "Straight from the Gut."
The all-time record for a non-fiction advance is held by President Bill Clinton, who is believed to have snagged $12 million from the Knopf imprint of Random House Inc. (Random House never disclosed the exact amount, saying only that it had paid "over $10 million" - but it has been widely estimated that the world rights deal was $12 million).
His autobiography, "My Life" eventually earned the publisher more than $6 million in overseas rights sales and had surprisingly strong audio book sales.
The hardcover edition was a runaway bestseller and earned back far more than Clinton's advance.
With Greenspan, publishers are in a high stakes poker game to find a price that will win and hopefully still make money for the publisher.
At least two publishers, and possibly three, are still believed to be in the hunt - HarperCollins, (owned by News Corp. which also owns The Post) and Random House Inc.
Also in the running is Penguin, which ignited the frenzy when it made a pre-emptive offer of $5 million.
But with the price already near $8 million, Greenspan may already be beyond the profit range, said one top publishing exec.
"Some books are bought for their sex appeal and some are bought simply for bragging rights," the exec said. "This one is about bragging rights."
Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
