Politicians get astronomical speaker’s fees also. Their literary skills must exceed Tolstoy’s.
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.
National Review
$153 million in Bill and Hillary Clinton speaking fees, documented
(CNN)Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, combined to earn more than $153 million in paid speeches from 2001 until Hillary Clinton launched her presidential campaign last spring, a CNN analysis shows.
In total, the two gave 729 speeches from February 2001 until May, receiving an average payday of $210,795 for each address. The two also reported at least $7.7 million for at least 39 speeches to big banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic 2016 front-runner, collecting at least $1.8 million for at least eight speeches to big banks.
CNN