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Article: Working with a ghost: business book publishers love CEOs. They have the one thing every publisher covets--a platform.(EXECUTIVE LIFE)
- Article from:
- Chief Executive (U.S.)
- Article date:
- July 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Chief Executive Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When a CEO writes a book, everybody starts reading. Employees, suppliers, competitors, investors, even the media. That's why Warner Books offered a $7 million advance for Jack Welch's memoir, Jack: Straight from the Gut, and ordered an initial printing of two million copies. Publishers dream about marketing platforms like the one Fortune's "Manager of the Century" once stood upon.
CEOs love publishers right back. A book can ensure a CEO's legacy; see Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors. Or perhaps excuse it; see Gil Amelio's On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple Computer. They are vehicles for corporate promotion, as in Bill Gates' Business @ the Speed ...