Author: [America] Barack? Barack obama.
ISBN: 978-7-5036-8690-0
Pricing: 42.00 yuan
Publishing: Law Press
Obama's fearless hope made him a great success. This paper analyzes the stories in the process of writing and publishing two biographies of Obama, Father's Dream and Fearless Hope.
When Obama first entered politics, he was just a fledgling writer and a fledgling politician. Hermene Hartman is the publisher of N'Digo magazine, a magazine for upper-class blacks in Chicago. According to Ms. Hartman, Obama called her in the fall of 1995, and he wanted to meet her and talk. He wants her to read his new biography.
Ms Hartman has read his book Father's Dream, but she is not going to comment on it. Obama's life story touched her, but it was a little strange to her readers-her father was Kenyan and her mother was white, and she spent her childhood in Honolulu and Jakarta, Indonesia. But she felt that she had known him from his words; Eight years later, when he started running for the United States Senate, N'Digo became the first magazine with him as its cover.
"Barack is a very dedicated and determined person," said Ms. Hartman, who now regards Obama as her friend. "Barack told everyone,' This is my book, and I want you to read it and give me some feedback'. I'm a magazine publisher. He just wants me to write some book reviews. He calls me every week and asks me,' Have you read my book?' "
Senator Obama, like other politicians, knows the power of a wonderful story. In the process of his political rise, the actual record of his political achievements is far less important than the life story he told-his story produced two very successful books, which made him a best-selling author, a millionaire who won two Grammy awards, and a leader in the primary election of the Democratic presidential candidate at the age of 46. According to his publisher, Obama's books have sold more than 3 million copies, and two more will be published soon.
The author himself has told enough stories about Obama's life, some of which are described in both books. Sometimes it is because his stories are fascinating, and sometimes it is because of the improvement of his political prestige-his stories always give people a relaxed feeling, even if they are not really effortless, but a vague and complicated mixture of motivation, ambition, timeliness and the ability to find and seize opportunities.
Just as he enthusiastically recommended his first book to Ms. Hartman, this time he was even more enthusiastic. When his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 made his biography go straight from the Undead State to the bestseller list, he broke away from his long-term cooperation with the book agent and let Robert? b？ Banert profited from it. Banert is a Washington lawyer who used to work for Hillary? Clinton got an advance of $8 million for his books, and this time he got an advance of1900,000 for three books of Obama.
After his first term in the Senate ended 18 months, his second book, Fearless Hope, was completed. During the trip to Africa organized by Congress, he proofread the book late at night. While helping his colleagues in the mid-term congressional elections, he spent time promoting books in 65,438+02 cities, appearing on Oprah Winfrey Show and Charlemagne Show, and then announced his participation in the presidential election four months later.
Obama's book defines his public image, and few politicians can achieve this goal in this way. Reporters leafed through this book, which was written by the author Obama himself, to get to know the candidate. He not only told his life story, but also outlined his campaign promise: if the seemingly irreconcilable black descent in Kenya and white descent in Kansas can reconcile with him, so can the divided country.
As one publisher said, his biography "is the best diagnosis of current American politics." Obama said that every time he writes, he doesn't think much about his political career, but simply thinks about how to write a good book, leaving a true and fair impression and making the book more powerful. Some reporters questioned Obama's use of fictional techniques such as composite features, but some editors and critics pointed out that this is very common in biographies.
"This book is very literary," said Arnold Lamperside, a professor of English literature at Stanford University who teaches autobiography and is the author of the recently published biography of Ralph Ellison. "This book is full of clever skills-it will produce literary effects-I am surprised, even a little dumbfounded. To tell the truth, these are all artistic tips. Only by removing these technical treatments can we know the truth. "
In a telephone interview on Friday, Obama said that he would not be surprised if someone was deeply involved in his campaign, "because they know me through my books." But he also said that when writing his autobiography, he did not expect any political effect. He said that in fact, an editor warned him that if he was nominated as a judge of the Federal Supreme Court in the future, what he said in the book about drug abuse might embarrass him.
"This is an example. If you step back and think about what happened, "Obama replied when asked if he had considered his political future at the beginning of his creation," then everything looks like that,' Ah! Of course, this part of the content has a special purpose, but I tell you frankly, there is no! It is hard for me to foresee that I can be here today. Here, I wrote a book almost 20 years ago, and I am still reading it today. "
Father's Dream was published in the summer of 1995, and soon Obama announced his participation in the Senate race in Illinois. At the 57th Street Bookstore near Obama's home in Chicago, someone bought his book to read. There are some respected book reviews in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and other newspapers. Time Books sold 8,000 to 9,000 copies.
"I joked that 290 million Americans didn't buy this book," he said.
Philip Turner, then editor-in-chief of Toastmasters, said that Toastmasters Universal Pictures (now acquired by a Japanese company) bought the paperback copyright of this book at 1996 for $5,000 to $7,000, and * * * printed about 6,000 copies. The cover uses Marianne Wright edelman's exaggerated advertisement: "Keen and wise, you will find your own shadow in this book, whether you are black or white."
"Even now, I still find it hard to believe that this guy has entered politics," said Ms. Baker, who thinks Obama is a born writer. "Actually, I think he may become a smart politician. He also has a way to realize his ambition of becoming a writer-that is, his cleverness in writing books. I remember thinking,' This guy really tells stories' ".
But within a few years, my father's dream was out of stock.
In March 2004, Obama's political and literary fate suddenly changed. His victory in the highly competitive Illinois Senate race made him an exciting figure in the Democratic Party overnight. In new york, Rachel Klayman of Crown Publishing Group edited and read an article about Obama on Salon.com website, which was written by his friend Scoot Turow. The article was entitled "The New Face of the Democratic Party and the New Face of the United States".
Ms. Clemen looked up Obama's autobiography on Amazon. And found that its copyright is being controlled by Crown Publishing Group, because Time Books are already under Crown's banner. She sent an email to her boss, suggesting that Crown reissue the book. She contacted Ms. Destre and asked him to write a new preface, which was quite perfect.
Soon, Obama was elected to give a keynote speech at the Democratic Convention.
Crown advanced the release date of the book, Barnes &; Noble ordered 20 thousand copies, and even before the book was reissued, it was already in the top 50 bestsellers of Amazon. The first edition of this book has already bid $255 for Yi Bei. 1February, he was elected as a senator, and his book has been on the bestseller list for 14 weeks. At the same time, Ms. Destre began to discuss the contract for the second book with Crown.
Two weeks before Obama was sworn in, Crown Publishing Group announced that it had signed contracts with Obama for three other books. The first book will provide "a window to explore the political and spiritual beliefs that support Obama's recent election as a federal senator", the second book will be an Obama life story for children, and the third book is being finalized. Crown's statement said that the transaction of the three books was initiated by Destel, but "the contract was reached by Williams &; Robert from Connolly Law Firm? b？ Banert”。
What happened between Obama and Destre is still unclear. Destel declined to be interviewed for this article. Obama said, "By the time" Fearless Hope "was finished, many things had changed. I entered Washington, and obviously my reputation is higher now. " Osnos called Obama's decision to ask for help from Bennett, whose clients include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, "betrayal, but normal". Blair.
Others also expressed understanding. "Without Banert's help, you will be useless in Washington," said a rival publisher, who was told not to mention "Bob knows how to deal with the politics of a book as skillfully as selling it, the senator's moral rules and royalties in advance. Bob can do this. "
Obama finished the book "Fearless Hope" in the summer of 2006. This time, he sent the first draft to dozens of friends and colleagues in the Senate, many of whom made suggestions for his campaign. They include David axelrod, his chief political strategist; Anthony Lake, former national security adviser to President Clinton; Jean sperling is an economic adviser to former President Bill Clinton. Samantha power recently stopped serving as Obama's foreign adviser after calling Obama's rival Hillary Clinton a "monster".
"His first draft is very beautiful," Cass R. Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said after reading the first draft of Obama's constitution and economic policy. "He told me very clearly that this is his first draft. I hope I can give some advice. I wrote a lot of specific opinions, and later he only accepted a small part. I gave him some potential writing topics. He always uses his own words, not my original usage. "
The second success
The publication of this book from June, 5438 to February, 2006 must make many people who have published books or want to climb high feel envious. In Chicago, people began to line up outside the 57th Street Bookstore at 4am15am, waiting for Obama to sign books. For the book signing event in Seattle, Elliot Bay Book Company rented a 2500-seat hall that can be used to hold a symphony concert, and sold all the tickets in 90 minutes, which set a record in speed and quantity, surpassing all previous authors who signed books in this store, including Clinton.
Time magazine published an excerpt from "Fearless Hope" and introduced Obama on the cover with the title "Why Obama may become the next president". There is an admirable illustrated article in the magazine, which shows some things Obama has done, such as washing dishes after breakfast with his daughter.
"Barack is worth millions now," Osnos said. "Basically, it is these two books. The contents of these two books are not from a lot of research work, nor from reports of risking their lives in Iraq. He wrote about himself. It is a dizzy fact to be able to grasp the story of your life and turn it into an incredible profit advantage. "