New Bill Clinton book scheduled for September release

Former President (and potential First Man) Bill Clinton is taking another stab at authorship. Possibly following the humanitarian lead of his former right-hand man, Al Gore, the former commander in chief is publishing a book on citizen activism, titled Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World.

The book will be released on September 4, according to Knopf Publish Group (a division of Random House ... which is a unit of the privately held Bertelsmann AG). The initial print run will total 750,000 copies.

In an accompanying quote, the sax-wielding democrat noted that his observations of workers' devotion to various charitable organizations around the world have proven to him that "almost everyone -- regardless of income, available time, age and skills -- can do something useful for others and, in the process, strengthen the fabric of our shared humanity."

Clinton already has a good track record in the nation's bookstores. His 2004 memoir, My Life, was a leading seller for Knopf; the 957-page book sold more than 2 million copies in the U.S. alone and was printed in more than 30 countries. According to The Washington Post, it managed a fist-day nonfiction sales record of 400,000 copies.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.