Huffington Post brings us news today that Obama signed a new two-book deal with Crown just before his inauguration. The grand total? $500,000 for a rewrite of his memoir for a younger audience AND a new work of nonfiction after his presidency.
Maybe this is a sign of publishers FINALLY holding back their inflated advances, but how in the world did Kathy Griffin and Diane Lane snag multi-million-dollar deals weeks after Obama signed up for his pittance?
For the record, I'm frustrated by the current system of advance payments doled out by publishers. I certainly understand the hype a hefty advance creates. It generates early publicity and creates momentum in-house so that everyone, from assistant editor to publicist, is excited about the upcoming project. It also creates competition, though we know the biggest bidder isn't always the best publisher to handle a given title.
I frown every time a ginormous advance is announced, thinking if they cut Griffin's advance in half, to around $1 million (she reportedly got $2M, right?), they could snap up 20 additional debut novelists for a very healthy $50,000 each. Or 40 additional books at $25,000 each. As agents are saying nowadays, 25 is the new 50 and 50 is the new 100, and I don't know a single author who would scoff at $25,000 in this market.
Maybe Crown is ahead of the times. Even back in January. They also offered him hefty royalties -- 15% for hardcover and 10% for paperback. Still, that's only a few points above the common royalties for Crown's authors. Of course, Obama was likely under option with Crown because of his previous deals, but why not head somewhere like HarperStudio, where he would have received 50% of every penny earned? I hope the 10% adds up nicely for his account of such a historic presidency*, but I'm certain Crown underpaid this time.
Or maybe this whole hype-and-awe system is really for the birds.
Thoughts?
*I'm not a fan of "an" historic and will never use it. I pronounce the "h", which is a consonant.
6 hours ago
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