Warren Buffet is, apparently, the world’s richest person. Richer than the Queen of England. His personal story is one of triumph and heartbreak*. Buffett devotees sit at his feet and absorb wisdom the way most of us down French fries**. The world is salivating for a chance to read the Buffett story — just let us read how it’s done, and we will too will sneer at the mere millions of lottery winners.
Ron Hogan of Galleycat has compiled lots of details about this deal, including that most scintillating of tidbits: Buffett won’t even be the primary author. If we have connected the dots properly, it appears that the seven million dollar advance is for a book about Warren Buffett. This yet-to-be-written tome will leverage author Alice Schroeder’s close relationship with the great man to tell a story for the ages.
Though our crystal ball was sold to pay for a faster wireless connection, we have no fear of educated guesses. Schroeder will write her book, someone (probably Bantam Dell) will lose a lot of money due to the public’s unexpected desire to read about the little guy, and Buffett will turn around and sell his ghost-written autobiography to another publisher.
* – Not a clue, we made that up.
** – Ditto. What you absorb in your personal life is your business.
2 responses so far ↓
David Thayer // Oct 21, 2005 at 10:36 am
Berkshire-Hathaway shares trade at about 86,000 bucks per share. Thus a seven million dollar advance pales in comparison although the publisher may panic when they realize they’ve paid a writer all this money. And, of course, as you point out, there is the little guy factor, wherein Wall Street falls from grace while Main Street emerges from the fog with The Biography of Alice Schroeder, the writer who broke the bank.
Booksquare // Oct 21, 2005 at 9:11 pm
Wow, I didn’t realize B-H was that high. No wonder I’m not rich — Booksquare stock is currently trading at around, uh, nothing. Considering that last week we were negative, it’s an improvement. It has been suggested that I invest in infrastructure. Apparently Wall Street loves infrastructure. Also divesting of pension funds — the official policy of Booksquare is that all new employees work for free with no benefits. It is estimated that our stock will be worth about the same (no loss!) if we stick to this policy.
Wasn’t The Biography of Alice Schroeder recently optioned by Hollywood? One hears rumors…