Tuesday, June 22, 2004
ABCNEWS.com : Fans Line Up to Buy Clinton's Book
NEW YORK June 22, 2004 — Bill Clinton was greeted like a rock star Tuesday as he arrived at a midtown Manhattan store for his first book-signing appearance. Amid cheers, applause and screams of "Bill, we love you!" the former president entered a Barnes & Noble book store in Rockefeller Center about a half-hour late and began signing his memoir, "My Life."
"I'm glad it's finally happening. I've been living with this for two years," Clinton told the crowd inside the store of his writing experience.
Fans had started lining up outside the Fifth Avenue store the night before to meet Clinton and get his autograph.
"Bill Clinton is a rock star," said Lynne Roberts, 37, who set up camp on the sidewalk Monday night. "He is our cultural icon and we miss him now more than ever, given everything that's going on in the world."
Although fans were told there would be no time to talk to Clinton, Dana Scinto of Stamford, Conn., said she would try to convey a message anyway.
"I want to thank him for eight fun years where he didn't insult my intelligence or rule by fear, like our current president," said Scinto, 39.
By midmorning, police had estimated at least 1,000 people were in the line, which snaked from Fifth to Sixth avenues and 48th to 49th streets. A sea of umbrellas popped open as rain began falling.
Evette Clarke, who got in line at 7:30 a.m., was effusive about the former president.
"I love the man. He was a great president," said Clarke. "He had a problem with his reputation, but who doesn't? Nobody's perfect."
Bookstores in New York, Washington and Little Rock, Ark., stayed open late Monday night for buyers who wanted to buy copies right at midnight.
"It's a historic moment for me," said Margaret Woods, who was at a store near Lincoln Center that began selling the book at midnight. "When he was in office, the country was prosperous, people had jobs, the budget was balanced and we weren't at war. He gave a lot of people hope."
The Books-A-Million store in North Little Rock, Ark., staged a party with trivia contests that drew about 80 people.
Although initial reviews have called the book self-serving and dull, Garry Caldwell, 54, of Sherwood, Ark., said he wanted to read "My Life" to better understand Clinton's legacy.
"I believe in listening to both sides of the argument and making up my own mind," he said. "I think he was a good president I think he could have been one of the best presidents except for the scandals."
Alfred A. Knopf gave the memoirs a first printing of 1.5 million. Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, said she expected the book to be the best-selling presidential memoir in the company's history.
To promote the book, Clinton has served as keynote speaker at BookExpo America, the publishing industry's annual national convention, and been interviewed by "60 Minutes," Time magazine and the British Broadcasting Corp., among others. He will visit more book stores over the next month.
Abroad, the book also went on sale Tuesday in Britain and Ireland; translated copies were being readied in France for a Wednesday launch.
In other countries where translations remained months away, "My Life" arrived in the form of newspaper serializations that focused largely either on Clinton's relationship with his wife, Hillary, or with Monica Lewinsky.
In Ireland, which the ex-president visits yearly for golf and lucrative speaking engagements, Dubliners lauded Clinton as a driving force behind both the country's 1990s economic boom and the peace process in neighboring Northern Ireland.
"Clinton was a charmer, whereas Bush is just scary," said Pat Huxtable, a psychotherapist thumbing through a copy of "My Life" in a Dublin bookstore.
Critics and Clinton's political opponents have not been kind to the book. Rush Limbaugh has said the book should be called "My Lie." The New York Times, in a front-page review Sunday, called it "sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull."
On NBC's "Today," Bay Buchanan, chairwoman of the conservative American Cause organization, called its marketing "masterful" and Clinton "a brilliant man." But she said the book was "boring and too long."
With advance orders already topping 2 million, Clinton's book appears guaranteed to justify his reported $10 million advance and outsell the memoirs of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who received $8 million. According to her publisher, Simon & Schuster, the senator's "Living History" has about 2.3 million hardcover and paperback copies in print.
At a book party in his honor Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Clinton joked about his advance: "I hope my publisher makes back its money."
Pre-orders for "My Life" have tripled over the last week at Barnes & Noble and also increased by double digits for Borders, even though the Borders discount for the $35 book dropped from 40 percent to 30 percent for orders made after June 14.
NEW YORK June 22, 2004 — Bill Clinton was greeted like a rock star Tuesday as he arrived at a midtown Manhattan store for his first book-signing appearance. Amid cheers, applause and screams of "Bill, we love you!" the former president entered a Barnes & Noble book store in Rockefeller Center about a half-hour late and began signing his memoir, "My Life."
"I'm glad it's finally happening. I've been living with this for two years," Clinton told the crowd inside the store of his writing experience.
Fans had started lining up outside the Fifth Avenue store the night before to meet Clinton and get his autograph.
"Bill Clinton is a rock star," said Lynne Roberts, 37, who set up camp on the sidewalk Monday night. "He is our cultural icon and we miss him now more than ever, given everything that's going on in the world."
Although fans were told there would be no time to talk to Clinton, Dana Scinto of Stamford, Conn., said she would try to convey a message anyway.
"I want to thank him for eight fun years where he didn't insult my intelligence or rule by fear, like our current president," said Scinto, 39.
By midmorning, police had estimated at least 1,000 people were in the line, which snaked from Fifth to Sixth avenues and 48th to 49th streets. A sea of umbrellas popped open as rain began falling.
Evette Clarke, who got in line at 7:30 a.m., was effusive about the former president.
"I love the man. He was a great president," said Clarke. "He had a problem with his reputation, but who doesn't? Nobody's perfect."
Bookstores in New York, Washington and Little Rock, Ark., stayed open late Monday night for buyers who wanted to buy copies right at midnight.
"It's a historic moment for me," said Margaret Woods, who was at a store near Lincoln Center that began selling the book at midnight. "When he was in office, the country was prosperous, people had jobs, the budget was balanced and we weren't at war. He gave a lot of people hope."
The Books-A-Million store in North Little Rock, Ark., staged a party with trivia contests that drew about 80 people.
Although initial reviews have called the book self-serving and dull, Garry Caldwell, 54, of Sherwood, Ark., said he wanted to read "My Life" to better understand Clinton's legacy.
"I believe in listening to both sides of the argument and making up my own mind," he said. "I think he was a good president I think he could have been one of the best presidents except for the scandals."
Alfred A. Knopf gave the memoirs a first printing of 1.5 million. Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, said she expected the book to be the best-selling presidential memoir in the company's history.
To promote the book, Clinton has served as keynote speaker at BookExpo America, the publishing industry's annual national convention, and been interviewed by "60 Minutes," Time magazine and the British Broadcasting Corp., among others. He will visit more book stores over the next month.
Abroad, the book also went on sale Tuesday in Britain and Ireland; translated copies were being readied in France for a Wednesday launch.
In other countries where translations remained months away, "My Life" arrived in the form of newspaper serializations that focused largely either on Clinton's relationship with his wife, Hillary, or with Monica Lewinsky.
In Ireland, which the ex-president visits yearly for golf and lucrative speaking engagements, Dubliners lauded Clinton as a driving force behind both the country's 1990s economic boom and the peace process in neighboring Northern Ireland.
"Clinton was a charmer, whereas Bush is just scary," said Pat Huxtable, a psychotherapist thumbing through a copy of "My Life" in a Dublin bookstore.
Critics and Clinton's political opponents have not been kind to the book. Rush Limbaugh has said the book should be called "My Lie." The New York Times, in a front-page review Sunday, called it "sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull."
On NBC's "Today," Bay Buchanan, chairwoman of the conservative American Cause organization, called its marketing "masterful" and Clinton "a brilliant man." But she said the book was "boring and too long."
With advance orders already topping 2 million, Clinton's book appears guaranteed to justify his reported $10 million advance and outsell the memoirs of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who received $8 million. According to her publisher, Simon & Schuster, the senator's "Living History" has about 2.3 million hardcover and paperback copies in print.
At a book party in his honor Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Clinton joked about his advance: "I hope my publisher makes back its money."
Pre-orders for "My Life" have tripled over the last week at Barnes & Noble and also increased by double digits for Borders, even though the Borders discount for the $35 book dropped from 40 percent to 30 percent for orders made after June 14.
