This year was full of interesting celebrity memoirs with stars like Britney Spears and Barbra Streisand spilling it all and Prince Harry topping the charts with his amazing book.
But despite the media frenzy, the huge advances paid to celebrities seem to outweigh publishers’ profits.
NewsNation’s “The Scoop” from Paula Froelich breaks down the numbers to see if a book makes back its advance based on the book’s cost and how much celebrities are paid — the rarely released but leaked numbers for Prince Harry and Spears.
“The advance is the risk that the publisher is willing to pay. If you pay too much and it doesn’t sell, it’s not good. If they sell well, it’s worth it,” Dan Strone, CEO of literacy agency Trident Media told NewsNation.
Froelich’s analysis, which he shared with Nichole Berlie on NewsNation Live, found that “Spare,” Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first four-book deal with Penguin Random House, was a publicity win but a financial failure.
Publishers paid big bucks for celebrity memoirs this year and, judging by sales numbers, it doesn’t look like they’re making much of a profit, a new report has found. AFP via Getty Images By calculation, Harry would have to sell more than twice as many books (2.7 million copies) at the original price of $36 as he did to recoup his advance, Froelich found. AP
Prince may have received up to $20 million early, according to reports, but despite topping the charts, only sold 1.2 million hardcovers.
He had to sell double to make back the lead.
Britney Spears’ “The Woman in Me,” which dished on her conservatorship and abortion while dating Justin Timberlake, was another flop but a PR win. Spears reportedly refused to do press for the book and sold 1.1 million copies but got $15 million up front.
Britney Spears’ amazing book is full of gory details about her past relationships as well as her conservatorship ending in 2021. AP
Streisand had to sell nearly six times as many copies of her book as she sold to make it worthwhile for the publisher, based on her preliminary estimates.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life” and Elliott Page’s “Pageboy” are not financially clear, Froelich said.
SNL star and comic Leslie Jones’ memoir sold 15,000 hardcover copies. AP
The obvious letdowns are low-selling readings from John Stamos, Kristin Chenowith and Leslie Jones.
“The numbers here show that some celebrities shouldn’t be writing memoirs at all,” PR guru Paul Bogaards told NewsNation.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
