Sixty-five million dollars is a lot of money for a book that Barack Obama said he would have written anyway—a labor of love, and part of a narrative to “train the next generation.” He has a lot to say, a “writerly sensibility” primed to be set loose on the page. And, helpfully, the (so far) two-time memoirist now has a post-presidential platform to deliver his thoughts to the common readership and adoring commentariat. At a cost, naturally.

The advance—upper-end estimates are, incidentally, the same price as a Gulfstream G650, the holy grail of private jets—spans two books, according to the Financial Times who reported the 65 million dollar figure. One the former president already promised his fans, and the other to come from the former first lady—perhaps another cookbook, something in the stretchy self-help genre, or a political memoir to tee up a career she keeps saying she doesn’t want. Penguin Random House won a bidding war to publish both internationally, snatching up the former president from his previous publisher.