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Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could receive more than $1million in a record-breaking advance for her rumoured biography.
Ms Ardern, 42, is believed to be close to signing a book deal with publishing house Penguin after a major bidding war with several international publishers.
Her first authorised biography is set to be Ms Ardern’s first major career move since resigning from office in April.
It’s understood the advance for Ms Ardern’s book could fetch anywhere between $1million and $1.5million, the New Zealand Herald reported on Friday.
Most publishing advances for Kiwi authors sit between $5,000 and $10,000. A typical memoir for a famous politician could go for as much as $20,000.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (above) could be paid between $1million and $1.5million for an advance on her new biography
Penguin remains tight-lipped on the supposed deal and any of the book’s details.
‘I don’t think I can talk about that. Who’s suggested that you get in touch with me about this?,’ Penguin Random House New Zealand head of publishing Claire Murdoch said.
‘I’m not in a position to comment on this. I don’t think I can say anything about it. Presumably, there’s one very obvious person to talk to about this.’
Ms Ardern is currently in the US.
Her EA told the Herald she couldn’t comment.
Time Out Bookstore Manager Jenna Todd told Newstalk ZB radio host Heather Du Plessis-Allan on Friday that there’ll be a lot of talk about the book and it’ll sell on its own.
She added the book would have lots of international appeal.
Former All Blacks rugby star Sonny Bill Williams’ autobiography payday came close to Ms Ardern’s rumoured amount when the New Zealand, Australian and UK book rights were sold for $1million in 2021.
It’s understood a publisher would need to sell at least 100,000 copies of a book to breakeven on a $1million deal.
While Ms Ardern has already been the subject of several biographies, including a children’s story, her new book will be the first authorised one.
Ms Ardern has been the subject of several biographies, including controversial ‘Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy’ (above), but the new title will be the first authorised one
One of Ms Ardern’s most notable titles so far was the controversial ‘Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy’ by journalist Supriya Vani and writer Carl A Harte.
The ex-PM said the interview published in the book was conducted under the pretence ‘the author was writing a book on women and political leadership’.
‘I was told there were roughly 10 other female political leaders involved,’ she said at the time.
She added she had told the authors she was happy to be interviewed ‘on that basis, given it was not specific to me’.
‘The claim that it was an exclusive interview for the purpose of writing a book of that nature [a biography] is not true so I think I will certainly ask that that be clarified,’ she said.
Ms Ardner (pictured with her partner Clarke Gayford) was elected prime minister in 2017 and led the country through several natural disasters, the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre and the Covid-19 pandemic
Ms Ardern, who was once the youngest female leader in the world, left NZ Parliament wearing a korowai – a traditional Maori feather cloak – in early April.
The globally respected PM led her country through several natural disasters, the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre and the Covid-19 pandemic.
She became the world’s youngest female head of government when she was elected as New Zealand prime minister at the age of 37 in 2017.
The following year, Ms Ardern became only the second elected female leader to have a child while in office and the first since Benazier Bhutto in 1990 when she gave birth to daughter Neve, who turns five in June.
She now spends much of her time working on Christchurch Call, a project dedicated to removing extremist content from the internet that was created following the 2019 mosque attack.
She will join Ivy League institution Harvard University later this year in three fellowship roles in leadership and fighting online extremism.
She will head to the US to spend a semester at Harvard Kennedy School as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and as a Hauser Leader in the school’s Center for Public Leadership to engage with students on ‘principled leadership’.
Ms Ardern will also take up a tech governance leadership fellowship at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Centre for Internet and Society, where she will study ways to improve content standards and platform accountability for extremist content online, and examine artificial intelligence governance and algorithmic harms.
Jacinda Ardern (pictured) will take up several fellowship roles at Harvard University in the US later this year
