Jacinda Ardern set for a $1million payday with book publisher Penguin Random House
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could receive more than $1 million in a record advance for her rumored biography.
Ms Ardern, 42, is said to be about to sign a book deal with publisher Penguin after a major bidding war with several international publishers.
Her first authorized biography will be Ms Ardern’s first major career move since she stepped down in April.
It is clear that the advance for Ms. Ardern’s book could raise anywhere from $1 million to $1.5 million, the New Zealand Herald reported Friday.
Most publishing advances for Kiwi authors are between $5,000 and $10,000. A typical memoir for a famous politician can cost up to $20,000.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (above) could get between $1 million and $1.5 million for an advance on her new biography
Penguin is tight-lipped about the alleged deal and all the details of the book.
“I don’t think I can talk about that. Who suggested contacting me about this?’ said Claire Murdoch, Head of Publishing for Penguin Random House New Zealand.
“I cannot comment on this. I don’t think I can say anything about it. Presumably there is one very obvious person to talk to about this.’
Ms. Ardern is currently in the US.
Her EA told the Herald she could not comment.
Time Out Bookstore Manager Jenna Todd told Newstalk ZB radio host Heather Du Plessis-Allan on Friday that the book will be widely talked about and will sell on its own.
She added that the book would have a lot of international appeal.
The payday for the autobiography of former All Blacks rugby star Sonny Bill Williams came close to Ms Ardern’s rumored amount when the book rights in New Zealand, Australia and the UK sold for $1 million in 2021.
Obviously, a publisher needs to sell at least 100,000 copies of a book to break even on a $1 million deal.
While Ms. Ardern has already been the subject of several biographies, including a children’s story, her new book will be the first authorized.
Ms. Ardern has been the subject of several biographies, including the controversial ‘Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy’ (above), but the new title will be the first authorized
One of Ms. Ardern’s most notable titles to date has been the controversial “Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy” by journalist Supriya Vani and writer Carl A Harte.
The ex-prime minister said the interview published in the book was conducted under the pretext that “the author was writing a book about women and political leadership.”
“I was told there were about 10 other female political leaders involved,” she said at the time.
She added that she told the authors she was happy to be interviewed “on that basis, as it wasn’t specific to me.”
The claim that it was an exclusive interview for the purpose of writing such a book [a biography] is not true so I think I will definitely ask for that to be clarified,” she said.
Ms Ardner (pictured with her partner Clarke Gayford) was elected Prime Minister in 2017 and has led the country through several natural disasters, the 2019 Christchurch Mosque massacre and the Covid-19 pandemic
Ms Ardern, who was once the world’s youngest female leader, left the NZ parliament in early April in a korowai – a traditional Maori feather cloak.
The globally respected Prime Minister guided her country through several natural disasters, the 2019 Christchurch Mosque massacre and the Covid-19 pandemic.
She became the world’s youngest female head of government when she was elected Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2017 at the age of 37.
The following year, Ms Ardern became only the second elected female leader to have a child while in office and the first since Benazier Bhutto in 1990 when she gave birth to daughter Neve, who will turn five in June.
She now devotes much of her time to Christchurch Call, a project aimed at removing extremist content from the internet created after the 2019 mosque attack.
She will join the Ivy League institution Harvard University later this year in three fellowship positions in leadership and combating online extremism.
She heads to the US to spend a semester at Harvard Kennedy School as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and as a Hauser Leader in the school’s Center for Public Leadership to engage with students about “principled leadership.” ‘.
Ms. Ardern will also be pursuing a leadership fellowship in technical governance at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, where she will study ways to improve content standards and platform accountability for extremist content online, and artificial intelligence governance. and will investigate algorithmic damage.
Jacinda Ardern (pictured) will take on several fellowship positions later this year at Harvard University in the US