In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve dug up a video of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reciting Howard Nemerov‘s poem, “The Makers.”

Clinton, who at the time was serving as First Lady, recorded this video for “The Favorite Poem Project” in 1999. Her husband, President Bill Clinton, also participated in this project. This project was founded by the 39th poet laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky.

In the past, Clinton wrote and published several books including the 1996 nonfiction title It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us and the 2003 memoir Living History. At the moment, speculations and rumors are circulating about the new book Clinton plans to pen. What do you think?

What kind of book deal will Hillary Clinton get for her next memoir? Clinton inked an $8 million deal in 2000, and speculation has flowed ever since the former Secretary of State mentioned she would write another book.

Over at BuzzFeed Politics, Ruby Cramer quizzed a number of publishing reporters and professionals (including this GalleyCat editor) about Clinton’s hypothetical book deal.  Here’s an excerpt:

Estimates for Clinton’s advance — the amount of money an author is paid before the book goes on the shelves — ranged from $5 million to $14 million. Her husband got $15 million for his 2004 autobiography, My Life, but as the publishing industry adapts to the digital age, seven- and eight-figure advances are hard to come by …  Ryan Harbage, of the Fischer-Harbage Agency, said $14 million would be “a safe bet” if Clinton decides to “hold nothing back.”

The Amateur author Edward Klein has signed a two-book deal with HarperCollins’ William Morrow imprint.

According to CBS News, one of the books will profile the 2016 presidential nominee of the Democratic party. The other will spotlight on politicians who promote “the left-wing political agenda.”

In the past, Klein has written books about the President John F. Kennedy, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, secretary of state Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. Prior to establishing his publishing career, Klein worked in journalism. He served as an editor at both Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine.

Madonna has had a pretty colorful life, and pretty soon you’ll be able to see it in full color. Independent publisher Bluewater Productions has a new comic book coming out in August based on the star’s life.

Female Force: Madonna is the illustrated story of the star’s life as written by CW Cooke and drawn by Michael Johnson. The book tells the story of how a struggling dancer in New York became one of the biggest pop stars in history. The book also highlights Madonna’s influence on other artists. “Most pop stars owe everything to this woman. It’s amazing all of the things that she’s done in her lifetime, and I have a feeling that this is still only the beginning,” stated Cooke.

Bluewater’s Female Force series featured other prominent women, including: Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, JK Rowling, Ellen Degeneres and Sarah Palin.

More than any other generation of writers, 21st Century political reporters know exactly what their readership is thinking–bombarded daily with comments, blog posts, and emails.

Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was Rebecca Traister, Salon.com columnist and author of the upcoming book, Big Girls Don’t Cry. She discussed her recent op-ed about Sarah Palin and gave advice for writers hoping to cover the 2012 election.

Press play below to listen.

“I’m not a traditional political beat reporter,” Traister said, explaining how her work at Salon.com shaped the book. “As soon as I would write something, I would get hundreds and sometimes thousands of people telling me what they thought. It helped me understand what the sentiment was out there, at least among the sector of people I was writing for. There’s some of that in my book–I write about the reactions I got at Salon, because they helped me understand how these conversations were playing out across the country.”

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In an earnings statement, Sarah Palin revealed she has already earned $1.25 million for her upcoming memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.”

According to the Guardian, the former Alaskan governor may have earned another portion of her advance when she turned in her book in late September, “since book advances are often distributed in several parts.” Some have speculated the advance totaled $7 million. In sunnier times for publishing, Hillary Clinton earned a total of $8 million advance for “Living History,” her 2000 memoir.

Here’s more from the article, noting that Palin has sparked a curious literary trend: “Also slated for release November 17 are two books called ‘Going Rouge,’ one a parody colouring book for children, the other a compilation of essays critical of Palin.”

Actually, the question Leon Neyakh posed in yesterday’s Observer “Media Mob” blog was “Will Simon & Schuster have to answer for [Jerome] Corsi?” But it amounts to the same thing: Neyfakh picks up on a Ben Smith Politico post about how S&S “doesn’t seem to have suffered any collateral damage, or provoked public complaints from any of its prominent liberal authors,” after the publication of Corsi’s Obama Nation. So Smith chases down some of those “prominent liberal authors” and puts them on the spot—and, lo, Paul Begala, who’s publishing Third Term: Why George W. Bush ♥ John McCain with S&S next month, emails back that “Corsi deserves a thorough de-lousing.”

Of course, criticizing an author is nowhere near the same thing as criticizing his publisher, which you’ll notice Begala didn’t do—and, no, “I can assure you the folks at Threshold have had nothing to do with my upcoming book” doesn’t count. (Nor does having a spokesperson field Smith’s inquiries, which is how Hillary Clinton evaded the issue, especially when all it produces is a variant on Begala’s line.)

Neyfakh promises “more on this later in the week,” but we can spare you the anxiety: No serious liberal who has recently been paid, is currently being paid, or thinks he or she has halfway decent odds of being paid good money from Simon & Schuster is going to say anything genuinely negative about the company or anybody who works there except possibly Corsi’s editor, Mary Matalin. And that goes double for anybody who has Bob Barnett arranging their book deals. “Oh, that’s not my Simon & Schuster” is as harsh as it’s going to get, and Smith and Neyfakh will give this up by Friday at the latest to dedicate themselves to trying to peek inside Bob Woodward‘s book before the laydown date. If they haven’t already.