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May 01, 2012 – Cissy Houston, the gospel singer and mother of Whitney Houston, met with publishers in New York this week to shop a book about her daughter, several people who were in the meetings said.

According to the New York Times, Cissy Houston, 78, described the book in meetings as the real and definitive story of her daughter, who died on Feb. 11 in Beverly Hills at the age of 48.

How much Cissy is prepared to disclose and how candid she will be about her daughter’’s troubled marriage and long pattern of drug use could determine the amount of money a publisher will be willing to spend on the book. Bidding could easily go into seven figures, said the people who attended the meetings.

Along with telling the whole story of her daughter’’s life, Mrs. Houston also told publishers she wants to combat some of the lies that have circulated after Whitney’’s death.

Cissy Houston has already written a memoir, which was published in 1998, entitled ““How Sweet the Sound”,” that told of her upbringing in a deeply religious family and her career in gospel. As a young singer, she helped form the ‘Sweet Inspirations,’ a group that frequently sang backup vocals for Elvis Presley; she later won Grammy awards for her gospel albums.

Houston will use a ghostwriter for this book, though no writer has been named yet.

Her book will not be the first about Whitney Houston to emerge since her death. Worthy Publishing, a small Christian publisher in Nashville, said last week it signed the gospel singer BeBe Winans, whose memoir will tell the story of his longtime friendship with Whitney.

The book, to be called ““The Whitney I Knew”,” will capture “Winans’’ personal stories and anecdotes that reveal Houston’’s warmth, generosity, and humor,” the publisher said. It is expected to be released in July.

UPDATE – June 05, 2012

Publishing company HarperCollins has just signed Cissy Houston, the mother of late R&B singer Whitney Houston, to a book deal scheduled for release next February.

“When I lost my daughter Nippy (Whitney Houston’s nickname), the world lost one of the most beautiful voices and an extraordinarily beautiful and charitable woman,” Cissy Houston said. “In sharing our story in this book, I hope to give her fans something to treasure, the way we all treasured Whitney. We are still receiving thousands of letters each day from her fans, and I hope reading this book will provide a deeper understanding into my daughter’s true story.

Financial terms have not been disclosed, but a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., where Whitney Houston sang as a child and where her funeral was held. Cissy Houston had met with several publishers.

According to HarperCollins, Cissy Houston will write with “candor, honesty and respect” about her daughter’s remarkable career and about her drug problems and her marriage to Bobby Brown. Cissy Houston also will reflect on her own grief.

“She will tell the unabridged and unbelievable story of her daughter’s life as well as her own, addressing Whitney’s brightest and darkest moments while helping fans around the world understand the complexities of this extraordinary star who died much too soon,” the publisher announced.

“Ultimately, Cissy will go behind the headlines to show the true, human side of this strong, successful yet complicated musical icon, capturing the dramatic depths and soaring range of an extraordinary woman, along with the pain and heartbreak of a grieving mother as she struggles with impossible loss.”