Jobs biography an instant hit months before release

Online retailer Amazon.com started accepting preorders for Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs, 'iSteve: The Book of Jobs,' which is due to be released in March 2012.

The Steve Jobs biography will likely be a big hit like iPads and iPhone because now it is the number one book in the Science-Technology and business and investing section, and number 47 in overall.

The 448-page book, which will be written by Walter Isaacson and published by Simon & Schuster, is available in hand cover for a preorder price of $18 while the Kindle version costs around $15.

Simon & Schuster announced in April that it will be publishing the biography, which will be written by Walter Isaacson. Isaacson and Jobs have been working on the project since at least 2009, but the announcement by the publisher is the first official confirmation. The title will be iSteve: The Book of Jobs.

The book is being written with the cooperation of Jobs. Other biographies have had to contend with Jobs' notorious reluctance to give interviews. Two unauthorized biographies have been written in the last decade: iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, written by Jeffrey Young and William Simon and published by John Wiley & Sons in 2005, and The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, published by Alan Deutschmann, published by Random House Inc. in 2001.

Isaacson has done biographies of several important figures, among them Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein. As this is an authorized biography few expect it to contain any damaging or controversial revelations. He is currently president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a policy think tank.

There has been some speculation that Jobs' agreement to the project is related to his ongoing health issues. The 56-year-old was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and took a medical leave from Apple in January.