This month, Alan Greenspan’s memoir, The Age of Turbulence, hits bookstores, and the market will decide if the $8.5 million advance paid by his publisher, Penguin, was sound economic policy. That hefty sum is believed to be the second largest nonfiction advance ever, behind Bill Clinton’s $12 million for My Life. (Former treasury secretary James Baker, whose autobiography barely earned back its six-figure advance, says he’ll give Greenspan’s book a “Washington read—looking through the index to see where I am referenced.”) As these other memoirs show, selling financial leaders’ stories isn’t always good business. 

In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices From Wall Street to Washington
$35, Random House, 2003
By former treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin and Jacob Weisberg
Estimated advance: $3 million
Sales: 79,000
Estimated gross: $1.38 million

The Real Deal: My Life in Business and Philanthropy
$32, Business Plus, 2006
By retired Citigroup C.E.O. Sandy Weill and Judah S. Kraushaar
Estimated advance: $2 million
Sales: 16,000
Estimated gross: $256,000

Tough Choices: A Memoir
$25, Portfolio, 2006
By Carly Fiorina, former C.E.O. of Hewlett-Packard
Estimated advance: $1 million
Sales: 42,000
Estimated gross: $525,000

Stop and Sell the Roses: Lessons From Business and Life
$25, Ballantine Books, 1998
By Jim McCann, founder and C.E.O. of 1-800-Flowers
Estimated advance: $1 million
Sales: 27,000
Estimated gross: $338,000

Note: Estimated gross is 50 percent of the hardcover price multiplied by copies sold. Sales figures for most of these titles were provided by Nielsen BookScan and represent 70 to 75 percent of books sold. The sales figure for Stop and Sell the Roses was provided by the publisher.