Of Books and Ballots: How Book Deals are Campaign Contributions

. . . and the sales prove it

Recently former Vice President Mike Pence got a book deal worth, reportedly $1.2 million for So Help Me God. Now, Amazon is selling this for $18, but let’s be real generous and say it has a list price of $20 and that people actually pay it. For, as the Great Rush Limbaugh use to say it, “Siiimon Und Schusterrrr” to break even, they’d have to sell 600,000 copies. (By the way, Tuppence, I think I’d be careful with that title). Oh, and let me make clear I’m using Bookscan numbers only, meaning “bulk buys” by a campaign don’t count unless some toady went into a dozen Barnes & Nobles and bought stacks of books, over and over. These are books scanned at the checkout.

How many did ol’ Tuppence actually sell? 171,000

That means that after paying ol’ Mikey, the publisher still had to pay all printing, distribution and marketing costs out of $2.2 million. Normally a royalty is 10%. if ya got a really good agent, 12% or even 15%. What does that mean? It means that the publisher has to pay all expenses and make a profit out of the remaining 90%. Or, in this case, if Tuppence really got 15% or so, this book has to sell something around $10 million worth to break even.

But let’s keep going.

Remember Cankles? The one everyone thought was going to be president before Donald Trump trounced her? (BTW, she is REALLY photoshopped in this one)

She got a similar advance back in 2014 for Living History, but that was pre-Joe Bidenflation. At any rate, what did she sell? 235,000 copies. Meaning she stuck . . . wait for it . . . “Siimon Und Schusterrr” with about a $7 million loss.

Then there is Governor Ron DeSantis. His Courage to be Free (terrible title) came in at exactly the same numbers as Tuppence, 171,000 and his advance was reportedly also $1.2 million. Meaning the publisher took an $8 to $9 million bath with him. In this case it is Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, which, like “Siimon Und Schusterrr” can afford a loss or two. But not too many.

So, you ask, why in the world would these publishers pump money into what, historically, will be losers?

Three reasons:

First, in the marketing department (See: Bud Light) the idea is that a few really “big names” in your publishing stable will cause people to buy other books in your catalogue. Dunno. Never once did I ever say, “Oh look! Penguin is publishing How to Lie by Smarmy Christopher Wray so its other books must be good too.” But that’s the SOP inside these publishers.

Second, with books like Cankles Living History, you’re flat-out looking at a bribe. This was published in 2014, so this was an eye toward buying influence “when” Cankles won. Boo hoo.

Third, the Pence and DeSantis deals are different. These are campaign contributions. The system works like this. A candidate can donate as much as he wants to his own campaign. That’s why the whole Porny Daniels fiasco is hot gabrage. Even if Trump knew what the money was for, hc can give what he wants to his own campaign and the expenditure was legit. But I digress.

So Pence and DeSantis each got massive campaign contributions, but first they need to pay taxes (say, 30%). Each of them therefore got a one-time sum of $800,000 before they ever sold a single book to, if they wished, plow back into their own campaigns.

What makes this so depressing is that authors such as myself, who actually have to make a living selling our work, often never see anywhere close to these numbers. “Yeah, but Schweikart, you don’t sell that many, either.” Oh really? Patriot’s History of the United States is in its 40th printing with a total Bookscan sales of more than Pence and DeSantis combined! Course, Mike Allen and I never saw an advance even remotely like that, but royalties over the years have been purty good.

Larry Schweikart

Rock drummer, Film maker, NYTimes #1 bestselling author

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