WikiLeaks CEO Signs Book Deal

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, will release an autobiography next year, having signed publishing deals that he told a British newspaper might be worth $1.7 million.

Mr. Assange told The Sunday Times of London that he had signed an $800,000 deal with Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House, in the United States, and a $500,000 deal with Canongate books in Britain. With further rights and serialization, he told the newspaper, he expected his earnings to rise to $1.7 million.

Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Random House, said Monday that the book would be “a complete account of his life through the present day, including the founding of WikiLeaks and the work he has done there.” The deal, Mr. Bogaards said, was initiated by one of Mr. Assange’s lawyers in mid-December and was signed in a matter of days. He would not discuss the financial terms. Canongate has not yet made a public comment but has spoken of its own deal in messages on Twitter.

“I don’t want to write this book, but I have to,” Mr. Assange told the newspaper, explaining that his legal costs in fighting extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of sexual misconduct, have reached more than $300,000. “I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat,” he said.

Mr. Assange is under what he has called “high-tech house arrest” in an English mansion while he awaits hearings, beginning Jan. 11, regarding those allegations. Two women in Stockholm have accused him of rape, unlawful coercion and two counts of sexual molestation over a four-day period last August. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the matter, and has called the case “a smear campaign” led by those who seek to stop him from leaking classified government and corporate documents.

Mr. Bogaards said the Swedish allegations, with the prospect of lengthy legal proceedings and even prison time in Sweden, had not given the publishers pause before a deal was completed.

It is not yet clear what aspects of a tumultuous rise to fame Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, will cover in his book.

He is, however, likely to be beaten to the punch with his version of events inside WikiLeaks. Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a German who was formerly Mr. Assange’s deputy in the organization, will release his own memoir in mid-February. It is likely to detail a public falling out, partly over the sexual allegations against Mr. Assange in Sweden, that led to Mr. Domscheit-Berg’s leaving late last summer.

“Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website,” will “reveal the evolution, finances and inner tensions” of the organization, said an announcement last week from Crown publishers, another imprint of Random House.

Mr. Domscheit-Berg is writing the book, according to a spokeswoman for his publishers in Germany, and is also working on his own Web site to rival WikiLeaks. That site, OpenLeaks, is expected to reveal its first batch of classified secrets early next year.

Distributed by IntelBuilder Social Media Platform