Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has inked a book deal to write a “behind-the-scenes account of the American response to the global financial crisis” for Crown Publishers. Publication is set for 2014.

Robert Barnett negotiated the deal with publisher Molly Stern. Executive editor Vanessa Mobley will edit. The publisher did not reveal how much Geithner will earn from the deal. Here’s more from the release:

Secretary Geithner will chronicle how decisions were made during the most harrowing moments of the crisis, when policy makers faced a fog of uncertainty, risked catastrophic outcomes, and had no institutional memory or recent precedent to guide them. He will also describe the relationships, debates about strategy, and strength of collaboration among key decision makers in the crisis, including Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, President Obama, senior White House advisors, and finance ministers and central bank governors of other key economies around the world whose own financial fires threatened to derail the U.S. and global recovery. Secretary Geithner will aim to answer the most important – and to many the most troubling – questions about the choices he and his colleagues made, the strategies they adopted, and the economic aftermath.

Former NBA star Bill Walton has signed a book deal for his memoir with Simon & Schuster. Walton’s (pictured, via) book will be titled Back From the Dead.

According to CollegeBasketballTalk, sports writer John Papanek has agreed to co-author this project. The publisher has the book scheduled for release in fall 2013.

Here’s more from the Mail Tribune: “[The book] will cover everything from Walton’s triumphs with UCLA and the Portland Trail Blazers to his overcoming a stutter and becoming a broadcaster to the collapsed spine that left him hardly able to move for three years … Financial terms were not disclosed. Walton was represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose clients range from President Barack Obama to singer/actress Barbra Streisand.”

Grammy-nominated singer Jewel has inked a deal to publish her first picture book. Paula Wiseman Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, will release That’s What I’d Do and its companion CD on September 18th.

Publisher Jon Anderson negotiated the deal with Williams & Connolly’s Robert Barnett. Paula Wiseman will edit this project. Artist Amy June Bates will serve as the illustrator.

Jewel drew inspiration for this work from a song she wrote/recorded that shares the same name as her forthcoming book. She explained in the release: “I love to sing to my son, Kase, and I hope my first children’s book, That’s What I’d Do, will be shared with new babies in the same way. All children need the joy of music in their lives.”

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Rock star Elton John has landed a book deal with Little, Brown for his first book, Love Is the Cure: Ending the Global AIDS Epidemic. He explained in the release: “This is a disease that must be cured not by a miraculous vaccine, but by changing hearts and minds, and through a collective effort to break down social barriers and to build bridges of compassion.”

Scheduled to be published in July, the proceeds will raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Williams & Connolly LLP attorney Robert Barnett negotiated the deal and Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch will edit.

Here’s more about the book: “LOVE IS THE CURE will be the very personal story of Sir Elton’s life during the AIDS epidemic, including his agony at seeing friend after friend perish needlessly.  Through his stories of close encounters with people like Ryan White, Freddie Mercury, and many others, he will convey the personal toll AIDS has taken on his life—and his infinite determination to stop its spread.”

Retired U.S. Army General Stanley A. McChrystal has landed a book deal with Portfolio/Penguin to publish his memoir.

Publication for the currently untitled book is set for 2012. Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly negotiated the deal with Portfolio publisher Adrian Zackheim. Earlier this year the general was relieved of his command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after sharing some controversial opinions in a Rolling Stone profile written by Michael Hastings.

Zackheim had this comment: “Amidst all the media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan … few people know who General Stan McChrystal really is and what he has accomplished. Nor do people realize what a fascinating career he had for 38 years in the Army and what he can teach all of us about effective leadership under extreme pressure.”

Celebrity book deals have multiplied this year, as everybody from Sarah Palin to Tina Fey inked contracts. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. To ease your frustration, GalleyCat has compiled a Celebrity Book Toolkit.

For all the writers in the audience, mediabistro.com has some advice about how to find work co-writing a celebrity book. In the feature, attorney Robert Barnett (who represented Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney) had this advice: “Potential collaborators should make themselves known to editors, agents, and attorneys. [...] I receive applications from many candidates each year.”

For all the publicists in the audience, today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was former Page Six reporter Corynne Steindler (pictured), talking about her new senior reporting job at Bonnie Fuller‘s Hollywood Life. She gave advice for publicists looking to get celebrity books attention in the gossip world.

“Give me an exclusive,” she said. “I think it’s a bit of a misconception that all gossip stories come from publicists. That’s something that I’ve been trying to fight down for awhile now,” she explained. “At Hollywood Life we don’t have a quota or a column to fill, we post continuously all day. So our stories can come from anyplace–a celebrity Twitter account, a news story that’s already breaking … we can do it in real time. I don’t think there’s anybody who just talks to the Post or just talks to the Daily News.”

Bloomberg’s Edward Nawotka finally uncovers some answers to questions I’ve wanted to ask for ages: how exactly does Robert Barnett earn his living from the megawatt authors, politicians and celebrities he represents? Not by standard agency commission, that’s for sure, because even though Barnett, a partner at the DC firm Williams & Connolly, functions on behalf of his book clients much as an agent does — negotiating contracts, assisting with the editing process, refereeing between writer and publisher — he firmly rejects the term.

“I’m a lawyer and proud of it,” he told Nawotka. “I bill my clients an hourly rate; I don’t agree with taking a percentage for someone’s creative output.” (An agent typically takes a 15% to 20% commission as payment.) At $900 an hour, Barnett’s attention doesn’t come cheap. But when it’s a question of a multimillion-dollar contract, Barnett’s hourly rate can offer a client a massive savings over an agent’s commission. In an example Barnett cited, he billed a client $150,000 for negotiating a $3-million book contract — a substantial discount from the $450,000 to $600,000 an agent would customarily charge. Discounts for authors – but not for publishers. Knopf Publisher and President Sonny Mehta said to Nawotka that the upside of working with Barnett “is that when he calls about a client, it’s always someone you will want to take a meeting with. The downside is that he’s an expert on valuation, and as such I can never quite negotiate the deal I’d like.” An understatement to say the least…

Even though it’s highly likely that a memoir from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is years in the offing, that doesn’t mean there can’t be stories about every permutation and combination relating to such a possible step. To wit, the Bookseller’s Katherine Rushton reports that Blair will meet publishers in London at the start of October, together with Robert Barnett, the Washington lawyer he has instructed to sell his memoirs. Random House and HarperCollins are expected to make bids for the book, and Bloomsbury (in a partnership with Miramax) and Simon & Schuster have confirmed they are also entering the fray. Hachette is understood to have ruled itself out of the competition, although CEO Tim Hely Hutchinson declined to comment to the Bookseller.

As already speculated, Blair’s approach direct to the US is seen as an attempt to bag the biggest deal possible by capitalizing on his popularity there, Rushton explains. Securing Barnett, who won big money for Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan advance-wise (and also represents James Patterson now) is also likely to inflate Blair’s advance. Rushton also has more in the Telegraph today about the pre-Frankfurt plan for Blair.

Forgive the overly ironic headline, but it’s in Robert Harris‘s best interest to demure when asked if the protagonist of his upcoming contemporary political novel, THE GHOST, is based on former pal Tony Blair (now shopping his memoirs, albeit in a slow boat way, via Robert Barnett.) “Actually there are also strong dissimilarities (with Blair), it’s not a hugely hostile portrait,” Harris told the Guardian after publishing sources claimed the likenesses are striking. One friend compares its impact to Joe Klein‘s novel PRIMARY COLORS.

“I had the idea about a ghost writer and a politician when I finished Enigma 12 years ago. But I couldn’t make it work. I thought it would be a good way of writing about Britain and America oddly enough, and the way British prime ministers go and get paid all this money by American publishers,” he added. Which is all true, and only when the book is out can readers make the comparisons for themselves…