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Hello, ATRW! Thought I'd bounce in a moment and vent about something I noticed in the news today...

The com(post) today claims that Hillary Clinton's book sold 2.8 million copies. Assuming it's true, although I am certain it is not, here's how the numbers would play out:

$28.00 SRP
(11.20) less 40% retailer discount
16.80 Publisher's gross per book
$1.68 Author 10% royalty per book

$1.68 x 2,800,000 = $4,704,000 royalties due the Hitlery.

We're talking BEST CASE scenario, and even with this fantasy number of 2.8 million, there ain't no way they'll sell the other 2 million copies needed to justify the $8 million advance.

They only way the advance can be met, even by these oh-so-generous numbers would be if Hitlery is getting a 20%+ royalty, which would be, shall we say, highly unusual.

If -- if -- 2.8 million books were shipped, there still needs to be some accounting for returns, which typically reach 40% of sales. So chalk off 40% right away. I'd bet that this book had an unusually high number of returns. Retailers were happy to give it great space at the launch, if only for the foot traffic it generated in the stores. And they did it risk free, for what they don't sell the publishers have to eat.

Next, the book is typically sold at 30-50% off SRP. So, with the unusual discounting it has gotten, the publisher's gross per book is likely much lower than the $16.80 I used to calculate it as a normal deal. My guess is their gross sales numbers are around twelve bucks and they've gotten half the books sold back as returns.

Now, a book advance is just that -- it is an advance against sales. If the sales don't justify the advance the author owes the difference -- under a normal deal, that is.

Whatever money Simon & Schuster has made off the book will have to go towards building a new warehouse to store all the unsold and returned copies...

Interesting post, nicollo. As I read it, I was reminded of another Simon and Schuster book, that was written about the First Lady, and released earlier this year. (I'm not naming it, intentionally as to not give the author any further publicity!)

This book and it's author on the talk show circuit, pretended to be something that it was not. I read about 3 chapters, and promptly returned it to my local Barnes and Noble!

Today, we have S & S publishing Clarke's book, released selectively only to the media before the hearing today, and several of the "questioners" on the panel referring to it, although according to what I read on the thread today, it had not been released to the public yet.