Sarah Palin Inks Book Deal

If you're going to run for president these days, then you've got to have a memoir (or two). Really, what kind of candidate would you be if you didn't detail your personal journey through American politics in an autobiographical (if occasionally ghost-written) account of how your humble beginnings make you just like everybody else.

Barack Obama did it. John McCain did it. Hillary Clinton did it. And, of course, Sarah Palin is about to do it.

Here's the Alaska Governor making the none-too-surprising announcement:

"There's been so much written about and spoken about in the mainstream media and in the anonymous blogosphere world, that this will be a wonderful, refreshing chance for me to get to tell my story, that a lot of people have asked about, unfiltered."

With tortured sentence structure like that, this thing is going to be murder to read, especially for those of us here in the not so "anonymous blogosphere world." No word yet on the exact amount of the advance that HarperCollins is paying, but it's rumored to be around $7 million. The book is due in the spring 2010, when Palin will seek re-election in Alaska. Will she have time to finish the book by then, what with her busy life? No problem. This woman is a veritable well-spring of words:

"Being a voracious reader, I read a lot today and have read a lot growing up. And having that journalism degree, all of that, will be a great assistance for me in writing this book, talking about the challenges and the joys, balancing the work and parenting, and, in my case, works means running the state."

So, congratulations, Governor! Your fans await what should prove to be yet one more media frenzy, and that's always good for selling books. The blockbuster deal, however, might mean a perfect storm of sorts in terms of the prose that finally makes its way onto Palin's pages. According to Publisher's Weekly, HarperCollins continues to shed staff, including--gulp--copy-editors.


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