Eqyptian Wael Ghonim Gets Book Deal for ‘Revolution 2.0’ – $2.5m

LATimes reports that Google man that fertilized Egyptian revolution has signed a book deal.

Wael Ghonim, the former Google executive and Egyptian revolutionary, coined the phrase “revolution 2.0,” and now he’s got a deal to write a book with that name.

This is the press release from the publisher

 

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired REVOLUTION 2.0 by Wael Ghonim, the inside story of the Egyptian revolution and the lessons of the Arab Spring, as told by the 30-year-old former Google executive who was one of the people that mobilized protesters through technology and social media. When Wael Ghonim created the “We Are All Khaled Saied” page on Facebook, nobody expected him as an anonymous leader to mobilize its members as a driving force in the removal of a 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.

 

REVOLUTION 2.0 is the story of how the revolution came about with the power of social media and internet technology. Ghonim also tells an inspirational story of how anyone can be empowered to change the world starting from his belief that the “power of the people is stronger than the people in power.”

 

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publisher Bruce Nichols, who acquired and will edit the book said, “The implications of Wael’s story reach far beyond the Middle East, and even beyond politics. How Wael helped nurture a mass movement is one of the great stories of our time, with lessons for anyone who seeks to make change anywhere on earth using technology.”

 

Wael Ghonim has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and is set to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this month on behalf of the Egyptian people. He will be on leave from Google as he creates a technology-inspired NGO for his charitable works to which proceeds from his book will be donated.

 

Ghonim will write the book in Arabic and is currently in final discussions with Arabic language publishers.

 

REVOLUTION 2.0 will be published on the anniversary of the uprising, Jan. 25, 2012. Inkwell Management served as agents.

 

The deal is worth $2.25m according to the author.