Comedian Amy Schumer allegedly received an advance amounting to $8 million to $10 million after an auction of her book of essays. According to Entertainment Weekly, the book is titled "The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo," which will reportedly be published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Publishers Weekly writes that the "Trainwreck" star's upcoming book will talk about her childhood, "her family and feminism" and her journey to stardom. Schumer's agent, David Kuhn, has been allegedly arranging a book deal with publishers in Manhattan by having them bid upfront. The project is being kept tightly under wraps and even those who were interested to read it had to sign non-disclosure agreements.
Gallery Books tells the Associated Press that "The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo" will "offer personal and observational stories from Schumer that range from the raunchy to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing." In a statement to the publisher, Schumer was quoted as saying "Believe it or not, there's actually more I have to say."
Schumer's book deal is record-breaking, surpassing that of "Girls" creator Lena Dunham's memoir "Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned," which scored the comedian $3.5 million. Tina Fey's bestselling book "Bossypants" was allegedly paid $5 million. Schumer's "The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo" is expected to be as successful, if not bigger, than these books.
On the subject of the towering price paid for the book, Bookseller editor Philip Jones explains such upsurge in the value as "In this new age, visibility is really key to selling books, and particularly to selling them in the huge numbers which obviously publishers will want to do, when they pay amounts like this," reports The Guardian. He further explains that "the bigger the name, the bigger the media exposure."
Schumer recently won an Emmy award for her comedy show "Inside Amy Schumer." Her recent film, "Trainwreck," was also hailed a blockbuster. With success in different fields, Simon & Schuster president and CEO Carolyn Reidy says that the book is a way for readers "to meet Amy Schumer as a writer of real talent, a daughter, a sister and a young professional making her way in the world."
There remains no information as to when "The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo" will be released in the market.