Saturday, October 16, 2010

Mitt Romney's Bulk Book Sales: Much Ado About Nothing

It seems that the media has picked up on a non-story and are doing their best to push some type of conspiracy theory involving Romney's book sales numbers.

What Romney has done in some cases is to sell bulk copies of his book No Apology, The Case For American Greatness,  to some non-public institutions with a promise of a speaking engagement thrown in as a bonus. Romney did not do this with Public institutions, just private.

Romney's book sales padding, if you want to call it that, was greeted in the publishing world with shrugs and yawns and is a common practice. These bulk sales are not counted when determining the best seller list as noted with an asterisk on the New York Times list. An according to the LA Times, UNLIKE Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin used her PACS money to purchase bulk amounts of her own book to the tune of $63,000. I wonder if her donors had this expenditure in mind when they donated? I just had to get that in.

Lets take a look at the math involved for private, non-public institutes that participated in this. I will use a fictional organization for the example:

The Bosman Institute (non-public) buys $50,000 worth of books. We sell 60% of them. Romney comes to the institute and gives a talk. NET COST of Romney's talk is 40% of the $50,000 or $20,000 and we still have books left to try and recoup some of that $20,000.

Lets compare that now to the price that other political celebrities get for a talk:

From Politico: (except in Huckabee's case)

Palin: $100,000
Gingrich: $70,750
Barbour: $60,000
Huckabee: $33,900
Pawlenty: $30,000

Politico also notes that Romney doesn't charge Public Institutions for speaking engagements. We all know. that's not the case with at least one other 2012 hopeful, that I won't mention by name.

The bottom line is, Romney still doesn't charge for speeches and by this bulk book buying deal, he gives private organizations the opportunity to recoup some of the cost of getting him to speak there.

In my opinion, those private institutions that were involved in this book sales deal, made out pretty well when you consider what the other political celebrities charge. What a deal!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great analysis Bos.

cindy

Anonymous said...

Bosman, this is why I like you. Other pro-Romney sites ignore negative Romney stories and you tackle them head on and prove them wrong.

Keep up the good work.

John

Right Wingnut said...

"An according to the LA Times, UNLIKE Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin used her PACS money to purchase bulk amounts of her own book to the tune of $63,000. I wonder if her donors had this expenditure in mind when they donated? I just had to get that in."

She gave away signed books in exchange for contributions of $100 or more. In other words, she raised more for her PAC. Why would I have a problem with that?...sounds like a good investment to me.

Right Wingnut said...

Also, the 4000-5000 books we're talking about amounts to about 1/10th of 1% of her reported sales.

These public institutions that pay a fee for Palin to speak typically rake in large amounts of cash as a result. As a capitalist, I see nothing wrong with that. I suspect Mitt would agree.

Anonymous said...

Right Wingnut,

Does Sarah donate 100% of the proceeds of he book to charity LIKE ROMNEY?

brian

Right Wingnut said...

Brian,

Mitt's emormous wealth allows him to do such a thing. Good for him. That's a ridiculous argument to make. Are you suggesting Palin is wrong to profit from her books?

Anonymous said...

Right Wingnut,

No,

I'm just making a point that's just as ridiculous as the MSM trying to make an issue with Romney by bringing up this Romney non-issue. Both Romney and Palin have a right to earn/raise money, any way they want. As long as it's legal

brian

Revolution 2012 said...

brian,

you are correct. Romney donates proceeds fro his book to charity. Others don't.

Rightwing Nut,

Palin has a right to profit from the sales of her books and other media dealings any way she wants. Good Luck to her.

This us against them thing involving Romney's fortune is getting a little state.

I read somewhere, wish I had bookmarked it, that Palin's and Huckabee's fortunes were upwards of 15-20 million each. Hardly paupers, don't you think?

BTW, I'm glad you're on board her. Saw you as moderator over on the community blog. I really am glad, that we have someone on board that is looking out for Palin's interest. I to am looking forward to our inevitable disagreements.