An official report into the causes of the financial crisis is set to be a surprise Christmas bestseller after the United States government signed an unprecedented book deal for the authoritative account.
The report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will be published 10 days before Christmas and is expected to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, potentially topping big name authors such as Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer, creator of the Twilight series.
The government is in the final stages of agreeing a deal with publishers Little, Brown and Co. For the first time, the government will receive a six-figure advance and a share of the royalties from sales.
Previous official reports, including the 9/11 Commission's findings, have sold more than a million copies. However, this is thought to be the first time that the government is seeking to profit from an official report. It will be available free online, but consumers will have to pay for the hard-copy version - and a multimedia version that will include video footage of bankers giving evidence.
The commission said there was a "deep hunger" for books explaining the financial crisis and that the report would "tell a story" and be a "readable document".
"Our goal was to make sure that it was a great report and accessible to people not just in distribution, but in content and form," said Phil Angelides, the commission chairman.
The commission was established last year to study the causes of the global credit crisis. Those who have appeared in public hearings include Lloyd Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs, and Alan Greenspan, the former head of the Federal Reserve.
No comments:
Post a Comment