Months after leaving the White House, the former president agreed to speak at a health care conference organized by financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald. This was in addition to $800,000 that he earned for two speeches to Northern Trust Corp. and the Carlyle Group.
“Becoming” is already set to turn into an international best-seller. In the book, Michelle Obama reveals details of her personal life, such as the couples counseling she sought with her husband and her struggles after a miscarriage, describing how she went on to conceive her two daughters by in vitro fertilization.
In addition to its US launch, the book was released in Australia, Ireland, South Africa, the UK, India and New Zealand. It will also be published in 25 languages around the world, according to a press release from Penguin Random House, the book’s New York-based publisher.
“Becoming” has already been chosen for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club, a distinction that has catapulted many authors to mega-best-seller status.
Tickets for “A Conversation with Michelle Obama” at sports venues across the country have also become a hot commodity.
Prices for Obama’s appearance at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center next month currently range from $307 to $4,070, which includes a photo with Michelle Obama and a signed copy of “Becoming.”
In addition to cash from appearances and book sales, Obama will reap the benefits of hawking 25 different items of merchandise connected to the book, many of which bear her likeness and feature inspirational messages.
The items include T-shirts and hoodies, a $20 “Find Your Voice” mug, and “Find Your Flame and Keep It Lit” candles, which retail for $35 each. Ten percent of the proceeds from the sales will go to the Global Girls Alliance, an initiative under the Barack Obama Foundation to provide education to adolescent girls around the world.
Barack Obama also donated some of the profits of his three bestselling books to charity.
According to Forbes, he donated $392,000 in royalties from a children’s book — “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters” — to the Fisher House Foundation between 2009 and 2015. The nonprofit supports families of veterans.
He raked in a combined $8.8 million for “The Audacity of Hope,” published in 2006, and his children’s book, which was released in 2010. He also made nearly $7 million from “Dreams from My Father.”
In addition to their multimillion-dollar literary empire, the couple is set to reap the benefits of a creative production deal they signed with Netflix earlier this year.
The $50 million, multi-year deal calls on the Obamas “to produce a diverse mix of content, including the potential for scripted series, unscripted series, docuseries, documentaries and features,” which will be broadcast in 190 countries, according to a statement from the streaming service, which has 125 million subscribers around the globe.