Subject: "Magic" Johnson Reaches Random House Book Deal
Date: Published: 12/6/91 (34 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    "Magic" Johnson Reaches
    Random House Book Deal

    NEW YORK -- Basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson signed
 a three-book deal with Random House, reportedly valued at $5
 million.
    Since Mr. Johnson's announcement last month that he has
 contracted the AIDS virus, he's been hotly pursued by a
 number of publishers interested in his autobiography.  Random
 House, a division of the Newhouse family's Advance
 Publications Inc., said it will publish Mr. Johnson's
 autobiography by next fall, as well as two other books.
    Random House said the second book, set for this spring,
 will be a paperback guide to "responsible sexual behavior,"
 co-written by former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.  All
 proceeds from the safe-sex guide will go to the just-formed
 Magic Johnson Foundation, the publisher said.
    Random House said the contents of the third book "will be
 determined at a future time."
    The $5 million advance is one of the largest book advances
 paid in recent years; Gen.  H. Norman Schwarzkopf was recently
 paid $5 million for his memoirs alone.  Random House is
 betting that there will still be widespread interest in Mr. 
 Johnson's autobiography even though a biography appeared just
 two years ago, and two "instant" biographies including the
 disclosure of his illness just appeared.

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