LBF Day 1: Exuberant Bids for Greenspan

by Karen Holt, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 3/6/2006

In a competition the former Fed Chairman himself might call irrationally exuberant, bids for Alan Greenspan's memoir have topped $8 million, with the field of publishers still in the auction having narrowed to HarperCollins and two other contenders.

The other publishers still in contention are believed to be either Knopf and Penguin Press, which started the frenzy with a $5 million offer on the book. Warner dropped out of the auction after its bid of $8 million—which earlier speculation deemed the most Greenspan could reasonably hope to get for the book—turned out not to be enough.

One publisher who read the proposal but did not bid on the book said Greenspan plans to mix memoir and public policy. Ghost writers are already lining up to take on the project.

The escalating price has led to the inevitable talk among publishers at the London Book Fair about whether the winning bidder will be able to recoup its investment on a book by the famously bland Greenspan. As one publisher put it, ''It's all about the editor and what they can bring out of him."