Get ready for Bill Clinton and the 957-page memoir.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

It's the biggest thing since Harry Potter - and as long, too.

Former President Bill Clinton's memoir, all 957 pages, goes on sale Tuesday, and bookstores across town and across the country are bracing for major sales.

``We're anticipating it will be the No. 1 bestseller for probably the entire summer,'' said Mike Davis, general manager at Borders Books and Music in Eugene's Oakway Mall. "Even if people didn't like Bill Clinton, they're still very curious and will want to read the book."

Davis said his store has placed an initial order of 350 copies of Clinton's "My Life" - which compares favorably to the initial order of nearly 100 placed for Hillary Clinton's memoir, "Living History."

Only J.K. Rowling, whose last Harry Potter epic drew an initial order of 500 copies, has eclipsed the former president in anticipated sales, Davis said.

The 350-copy order is particularly impressive in light of the fact that bookstores, whether independent or chain, no longer have a monopoly on the sale of blockbuster books, Davis noted. Clinton's book will also show up at the Fred Meyers and Costcos of the world.

Political titles have always sold well at the Eugene store, especially from left-of-center pundits, so Clinton's book is expected to jump off the shelves, Davis said. More than 50 people placed prerelease orders last week - in time for an extra discount, he said.

The independent Book Mark store in downtown Eugene, meanwhile, has ordered 20 initial copies. "For a biography that costs $35, that's a pretty good-sized order for us," seller Cheryl Burch said.

The buzz has also reached the Barnes & Noble store near Valley River Center. "People are definitely aware it's coming," manager Laura Carroll said, adding that few prospective buyers seem put off by the book's size.

"He's got a lot to say, I guess," she said.

Meanwhile, Clinton and the marketing masterminds at his publisher, Knopf, aren't leaving much to chance in their promotional campaign for the book, which is already on the top of Amazon.com's bestseller list based on pre-publication sales alone.

The publisher decided against selling first serial rights - published excerpts in a newspaper or magazine - in hopes of teasing more readers to actually buy the book. Instead, marketers started releasing "audio bites" of Clinton reading from the book.

Also, tonight's ``60 Minutes'' will devote its entire show to Clinton, and the former president will tape an hourlong conversation with Oprah Winfrey on Monday for broadcast on Tuesday, the day his book is released. He'll be pitching the book on "Today" and "Good Morning America" on Wednesday.

The book has an initial press run of 1.5 million copies and pre-orders already are exceeding 2 million. Promotion actually began two weeks ago when Clinton addressed the American Booksellers Association convention in Chicago.

Davis said a Borders buyer who attended the convention told him Clinton stole the show among a host of major authors. "His speech was dynamic, a knockout," Davis said. "There is so much excitement over this book."

The Washington Post contributed to this report.