For reference, a real writer might expect to be paid perhaps $4 or $5 for every copy of a hardcover book he sells.
I used to be the books editor of People magazine, and I’ve written a couple of books myself, so I understand more about the book business than most, but I’m at a loss to explain how the political segment of publishing works.
We all know about the “campaign book,” usually with a title like My American Journey or An American Journey or Hooray for America. We know that the politicians whose names grace the covers haven’t written the book and in some cases haven’t read them, but that’s fine because the intended audience for the books isn’t expected to read them. Only a handful of contemporary American politicians (Ben Sasse comes to mind) are capable of writing anything recognizable as a real book.
Instead, these books function as party favors or campaign props meant to lend gravitas to a political figure and be placed on the coffee table during an earnest interview on a morning chat show. An effective politician can sell a lot of books, particularly if he’s built a high profile, for instance by becoming a plausible presidential candidate or if he is governor of an important state. Still, though, most of these crappy books are just verbiage.
Book deals are very often made on the basis not of whether the book is going to be any good but on whether he is “bookable” — whether we can expect to see him flogging the thing on 60 Minutes or Good Morning America. If the thing is boilerplate, though, it risks not fooling anyone. How on earth is Cuomo’s 2014 book All Things Possible worth $783,000, which is what he got from HarperCollins for it? The thing only sold 3,200 copies in its first three years, meaning Cuomo collected a royalty equivalent to . . . $245 per book sold.
In 2014, though, Cuomo was just another politician. This past year, he really did become a nationwide celebrity, and eminently bookable. The media portrayed him as a Solon of COVID. That’s a head-scratcher considering New York and its little sibling New Jersey have the two highest death rates of any states in the U.S., but nevertheless there was bound to be a lot of interest in his October book, American Crisis: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic. And the book sold pretty well: 46,000 copies so far. At that level of sales you can imagine a book might be worth an advance of a couple hundred thousand dollars. But Cuomo wasn’t paid a couple of hundred thousand dollars for it, this time via Crown Publishing. He was paid, we learn from Vanity Fair, “at least low to mid seven figures.” Huh? Low seven figures is $1 million. Mid seven figures is $5 million. He was paid somewhere in the vicinity of $3 million for this book? Crown must have known they had no chance of breaking even on this deal. What gives? Even at robust sales of 46,000 copies, that means Cuomo was paid $65 for every copy sold. For reference, a real writer might expect to be paid perhaps $4 or $5 for every copy of a hardcover book he sells.