Yes, I know, I hate Facebook graphics. I really do … But whether you think it’s the liberal media, corporate media, or whatever, this is a great question to ask.
Take a look at Hillary Clinton’s book, “Hard Choices,” as an example.
Simon & Schuster paid a $14M advance and also made a $5M royalty in 2015, based on 340,000 editions sold in a little less than three years. The book’s list price was $35 – meaning even if every single person paid that price, revenue – not profit – from the book would have been just shy of $12M.
It was on the best seller list for nine weeks meaning that smart, first shoppers – about 175,000 of them in the first week or so – got it at a discount, 20-40%, depending on the store. So the company probably got about $7-$8M in revenue from the book, not $12M.
Again, this is revenue, not profit. In other words, after production costs, marketing, etc, they took a bath on it, to the tune of probably close to $10-$12 million on that one book – and Clinton got $19 million for writing about her “public service” …
It’s kinda funny, actually. Many of the same people – including Clinton supporters – who scream about CEOs that layoff 10,000 people and then get to keep their $X million salary or get a golden parachute would never say boo about this situation, not understanding that it is very similar. How many people lost their jobs at Simon & Schuster (there were “restructuring” strategies and layoffs during the three years that the book has been out)? How many people didn’t get published that have good offerings but they aren’t a Clinton? How many of the other authors at Simon & Schuster got squeezed to make sure Clinton got her $19M?
But you know what? Like the CEO, she negotiated a good contract for herself that the company never should have agreed to and it lost money. So, yes, ask the question, someone, please, and understand the similarity, too.