Clinton Fans Line Up At Stores

Fans of Bill Clinton lined up outside bookshops from Arkansas to New York to snap up copies of his autobiography, giving the former president's words the same rock star treatment he often enjoyed while in power.

"It's a historic moment for me," said Margaret Woods, a Manhattan billing consultant who stood in a line of about 100 people outside a Barnes & Noble near Lincoln Center that began selling the book at midnight Monday.

Alfred A. Knopf has given the memoirs a first printing of 1.5 million. Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, said she expected "My Life" to be the best-selling presidential memoir in the company's history.

"It's like adult Harry Potter mania. We haven't seen anything like this since J.K. Rowling came here," said Michael Link, a bookseller for Politics & Prose, a Washington-based store.

Mr. Clinton is certainly doing all he can to push for bookseller history, giving and going on to hit the talk show and magazine interview circuit in a big way.

The Books-A-Million store in North Little Rock, Ark., stayed open late and staged a party with trivia contests that drew about 80 people. Those who attended also could sign up for a later drawing giving them an opportunity to have their book signed by Clinton.

Pleasing the literary establishment may be a little harder - some initial reviews have called the book self-serving and dull.

The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani, in a front-page review Sunday, panned the 957-page autobiography as "sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull." Newsweek called it "hardly an edge-of-your-seat experience."

Reviews weren't of much concern to Garry Caldwell, 54, who lined up to get one of the first copies sold in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

"I believe in listening to both sides of the argument and making up my own mind," said Caldwell, who is buying the book to learn more about the Clinton legacy. "I think he was a good president - I think he could have been one of the best presidents except for the scandals."

Although Tuesday is the book's official release date, promotion for the book actually began early this month, when Clinton was the keynote speaker at BookExpo America, the publishing industry's annual national convention.

On Monday evening the former president, Senator Hillary Clinton, and daughter Chelsea Clinton were the guests of honor at a book party at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Close to 1,000 people filled the Great Hall, including actress Lauren Bacall, folk singer Judy Collins, comedian Al Franken, recent presidential candidate Al Sharpton, Clinton aide-turned-broadcaster George Stephanopoulos, and TV personalities Barbara Walters and Paula Zahn.

"This is a terrific book," Sen. Clinton told the crowd as she introduced her husband to the well-heeled crowd of well-wishers gathered at the museum.

Bill Clinton joked about his reported $10 million advance, saying "I hope my publisher makes back its money," and joking that it took him so long to write the book, "by the time I finished this book I was just about down to minimum wage."

Clinton's political opponents already are taking on the former president. Rush Limbaugh has said the book should be called "My Lie." Citizens United, a conservative lobby group, purchased advertising time on "60 Minutes" Sunday, accusing Clinton of failing to fight terrorism, .

The promotional tour itself reflects Clinton's well-documented fondness for pleasing all sides. Over the next month, he will visit independent booksellers, chain superstores, black-owned stores such as Harlem's Hue-Man Bookstore, and price clubs such as Costco.

Bob Wietrak, a vice president of merchandising at Barnes & Noble, said reviews will "absolutely not" affect sales. "People are buying this book because they want to know what he says, not how he says it," Wietrak said.

Pre-orders for "My Life" have tripled over the last week at Barnes & Noble and also increased by double digits for Borders, even though the Borders discount for the $35 book dropped from 40 percent to 30 percent for orders made after June 14.

With advance orders already topping 2 million, Clinton's book, which runs from his Arkansas childhood through his presidency, appears guaranteed to justify his advance and outsell the memoirs of his wife, who received $8 million.

Sen. Clinton's "Living History" has about 2.3 million copies in print, including both hardcover and paperback editions. That's according to her publisher, Simon & Schuster, which along with CBS, is a division of Viacom.