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Networks Vie For First TV Interview With Jaycee Dugard

PLACERVILLE (CBS/AP) - The coming publication of a memoir by Jaycee Dugard, the woman who was kidnapped as a girl and discoverd near Antioch 18 years later, has broadcasters scrambling to become the first to get an interview with her.

Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS, announced Monday that the memoir of Jaycee Dugard will go on sale July 12. Titled "A Stolen Life," it will cover Dugard's abduction and life with Phillip and Nancy Garrido, the couple who have pleaded guilty to kidnapping and rape.

Dugard has not decided yet whether she will do interviews surrounding the book, according to Nancy Seltzer, her spokeswoman.

If she does, it would break the silence she has maintained since releasing a home video last year.

"What's conveyed on television is her emotion, the look on her face," Seltzer said of a possible network TV interview. "With great and true respect to the printed word, it's not the same."

Seltzer declined to reveal which networks were making pitches. She is asking the journalists to provide details on what they would ask Dugard.

Dugard was kidnapped from herSouth Lake Tahoe home at age 11 and resurfaced in August 2009. Now 31, she has maintained her privacy while living inNorthern Californiawith her mother and her two daughters fathered by Phillip Garrido.

Seltzer said Dugard wrote "A Stolen Life" on her own, without help from a ghost writer. Along with hardcover and electronic book editions, Simon & Schuster is producing an audio book narrated by Dugard.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido pleaded guilty on April 18 to charges of kidnapping and sexual assault.

They were scheduled to be sentenced June 2 in El Dorado County Superior Court in Placerville.

Phillip Garrido faces a maximum sentence of 431 years to life in prison, and his wife faces 36 years to life in prison, according to the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office.

(Copyright 2011 by CBSSan Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)

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