Newt’s Book: The Story Behind the Story

The Wall Street Journal, January 25, 1995.

There has been much feverish speculation in the press about House Speaker Newt Gingrich's $4.5 million (now $1) book deal. Though it is unusual for literary agents to discuss such matters in public, I feel compelled to lay to rest the baseless and absurd insinuations being made about the sale of Mr. Gingrich's book.

No one has suggested any impropriety in our conduct regarding the book auction. All of the major publishers we approached, including those who didn't bid because the price got too high, complimented Mr. Gingrich's proposal and called it a desirable project. Four major publishers made offers in the millions, and the nearest underbidder was willing to pay $4.1 million for "To Renew America" alone. The project (which includes a second book, an anthology of readings on American democracy) eventually fetched $4.5 million.

This is an excellent price but certainly no record for a public figure. The pope got $9 million, Ronald Reagan got $7 million, Colin Powell got $6 million and Norman Schwartzkopf got $5 million. Million-dollar advances are not uncommon in the book business. Even Anita Hill got more than $1 million.

The book deal wasn't a political payoff to the speaker. Mr. Gingrich simply has a lot of things to say that millions of people are interested in reading, just as they were interested in reading the ideas of Rush Limbaugh and Bill Bennett.

I first looked at Mr. Gingrich's materials last summer. It was immediately obvious to me that he was not just another politician but a writer with exciting new ideas — a New Wave conservative. Clearly a well-read man, Mr. Gingrich is also a fine anecdotalist whose writing exhibits charm and common sense. His prose is fluent and coherent, and he has an upbeat vision of America's future.

Moreover, Mr. Gingrich ahs grasped how books need to be structured. His proposal wasn't a rambling essay, but a convincing précis for a well-organized, full-length book. This can be hard for even experienced authors to achieve. So I was impressed by the material, and publishers were too.

Mr. Gingrich's book deal bears no resemblance whatsoever to Speaker Jim Wright's. Mr. Wright never landed a real publishing contract; instead he had a vanity press print up a book written by congressional staff, which was then sold in bulk at Mr. Wright's speeches to political supporters. This was designed to evade the congressional rule explicitly proscribing lecture fees. There are absolutely no grounds for comparing this deal with Mr. Gingrich's legitimate book contract.

Nor is there anything to the theory that the book contract was given by Rupert Murdoch to curry favor with the speaker. This is a conspiracy fantasy worthy of Oliver Stone: despotic capitalist manuplates auction of a book, via mind control of other publishers. In the hopes that the grateful congressman-author will one day influence FCC hearings involving the parent corporation. This theory rests on ignorance of how the publishing world works. Publishers, not the owners of their parent corporations, decide what books to buy and how much to pay for them. If they based these decisions on anything other than what the market would bear, they would soon go out of business.

As it happens, Mr. Murdoch was in China when his subsidiary, HarperCollins, bought the Gingrich book. Both Mr. Murdoch and HarperCollins confirm that he played no part whatsoever in the purchase. Nor was Mr. Gingrich aware that Mr. Murdoch — one of many lobbyists and businessmen who parade through congressmen's offices daily — had any connection to HarperCollins.

In fact, Mr. Gingrich wasn't even aware of HarperCollins's interest until after Nov. 28, the day of his now famous meeting with Mr. Murdoch. This meeting, in turn, was long after an editor at Harper had first expressed an interest in the book on Aug. 18. It would have been extraordinary foresight on Mr. Murdoch's part to begin the process of suborning Mr. Gingrich long before he even know that Mr. Gingrich would be the speaker!

Critics argue that Mr. Murdoch's ownership of HarperCollins nevertheless creates a "perception" of a conflict. But this perception, however unfounded, would have been impossible to avoid no matter which publishing house bought the book. S.I. Newhouse owns Random House, Knopf, Ballantine and Crown; Sumner Redstone owns Pocket Books, Prentice Hall, Macmillan and Paramount. It's simply impossible to avoid selling your book to a telegenic media mogul; and all of the other moguls have regulatory interests in Washington as pressing as Mr. Murdoch's.

What really counts in ethics and morality is substance — not imagined "appearance." And on the substance, there is no impropriety in Newt Gingrich writing and selling a book at a fair market price. Members of Congress, the president, the first lade, and the vice president are specifically permitted under ethics rules to write books for a fair-market advance and royalties.

Twenty-three sitting senators, plus Al Gore, have published books as of this year. Sen. Al D'Amato (R., N.Y.) and Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D., Md.) have books coming out soon, from Hyperion and Doubleday, respectively; each reportedly got an advance of more than $200,000. Sen. Paul Simon has written 14 books, and even obscure former Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky reportedly landed a $75,000 advance for her bok, "A Woman's Place," published last year.

Is it Newt Gingrich's fault if the best publishers in America think that his thoughts are worth more than those of any other political figure in the country today?