Clinton's Book Signings Draw Adoring Throngs
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: June 23, 2004
Maxine George was in an absolute swoon yesterday.
"What a wonderful guy,'' she said, buckling at the knees, throwing her head back and clutching "My Life'' to her chest. "He is so sexy.''
Ms. George, 49, executive director of a nonprofit organization, traveled from Schenectady, N.Y., to meet Bill Clinton at a book signing that turned into a marathon four-hour performance and helped Barnes & Noble sell a record number of books at its store on Fifth Avenue in Rockefeller Center, 2,217 copies, and at all Barnes & Noble stores across the country - more than 90,000 copies, by far a record for single-day sales for nonfiction, a spokeswoman for the chain, Mary Ellen Keating, said.
Publishing experts say Barnes & Noble stores and its Web site account for about 20 percent of total book sales, suggesting that Mr. Clinton may have sold 500,000 copies on the first day. That would put him on track to pay back his reported $10 million advance fairly quickly.
And it breaks the nonfiction record that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to have set last year with 200,000 copies of her "Living History'' sold on its first day....
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/politics/23clinton.html