The Daily Telegraph informs us this morning that David Blunkett has made more than £200,000 from his diaries. His publishers, Bloomsbury, saw fit to pay him £165,000 and he got £30,000 from Channel 4 and £5,000 from the Radio 4 serialisation (equivalent to 28 TV licenses). This doesn't include the serialisation on the Daily Mail or Guardian, which will add another six figure sum. And all for a book which has sold fewer than 1,500 copies.
I am sure Bloomsbury had their reasons for paying so much, but I'd love to know what they were. This is the economics of the publishing madhouse. In order for them to recoup their money they need to sell in excess of 50,000 copies. That is never going to happen. They'll be lucky to clear 5,000.
Having said that, I am quite looking forward to reading it. It's a massive 800 pages long so I suspect I shall keep it in the loo and dip into it - the book, that is. Ahem.
UPDATE: I am reliably informed that Blunkett will gross £450,000 from this book. Bloomsbury are keen to be big players in the memoir field so they splashed some Harry Potter cash on Blunkett as a loss leader. All I can say is they could have achieved their aim for a lot less dosh. All they had to do was ask...
17 comments:
i know that feeling wouldnt mind reading it for a laugh but im not putting money in his pocket.il get a copy when they hit 50p on ebay
800 pages - staggering. Is it large print for Sion Simon?
You are making an interesting point here. The whole Blunkett book deal is riddled with irregularities - didn't you blog about him using Government money to buy some? Accountancy Age was very keen to point out the hypocrisy of the tax arrangements related to this tome.
As with the Christopher Meyer memoirs, 'DC Confidential', if you put most of the juicy stuff in the serialisation / Radio 4 abridged / snippets on the web, people simply will not feel the need to buy the whole thing. Although I have a feeling that Mike at the great 'Good Buy Books' in Bath has made a living for years on the loss leaders of vanity publishing.
Private Eye always do a great feature on this kind of thing- Blunkett isn't the only one- look at Cashley Cole's memoirs I think they've only sold about 3000 copies.
Is the Toerag still in a grace and favour squat in London?
He should donate half of this to the tax payer for causing so much unnecessary expenditure on visas and cabinet reshuffles resulting from his behaviour.
I started reading it and lost the will to live
I suspect some of these huge publishing advances are fuelled by corporate arrogance and commercial rivalry. Some publishers need a good accountant on the board, to put them in touch with Planet Earth.
Greedy bastard. I always thought he should be a Tory.
I would not read it on principle.
He is just a bully and has abused his position more than once.
Hi Ian, Can't remember the exact TV license fee but I'm sure £5k is more than 28 licenses!
I wouldn't read it because he has such a drab personality that I think even Stephen Pollard would not have been able to make it very interesting, and he was promoted light years beyond his level of competence. As an aside, I wonder how much it cost British taxpayers to have every single damn' document and every single letter translated into Braille. So Tony could make yet one more grand, empty gesture.
I said at the time that his disability should have disqualified him from high office. Too bad and all that, but the British people have an absolute right to be governed by people who can be perceptive on all levels, and that includes the ability to judge the truth of what someone else is saying by their body language, their facial expressions and their eyes.
For the same reasons, he couldn't be a judge or a barrister.
This is the lefties all over: denial.
You're safe to say what you like about him here, Verity.
Is it 800 pages because it's been printed in Braille?
Thick book. Thick Author.
Blunkett is yet another snivelling little cash-grabbing NuLab creep. I do wish these cretins would stop this 'poor me' crap. They're all making bundles and doing sod all for it - except ripping off the taxpayers.
Honesty, Integrity, even Dignity?
I'm safe to say what I like about him anywhere, Prague Tory. But I've noted down your comment and your website for future reference.
Err, Iain, you sure you've got that right?
Serialisation money doesn't usually go to the author. It usually (or at least a significant chunk of it) goes to pay off the advance to the publishers.
There's a whole section of publishing devoted to books that only make money for the publishers on the back of those serialisations.
I'd say (and perfectly willing to be corrected of course) that Blunkett pocketed the advance (minus agent's 15%) and Bloomsbury got the newspaper and TV and radio fees: so they are around about even on royalties so far.
Tim, no, Blunkett apparently kept the serialisation rights. You're right that normally an author would get 75-90% of the serialisation but in this case I believe he pocketed the lot, minus the agent's 15%. I stand to be corrected but I don't think Bloomsbury got a penny.
Blunkett's a better negotiator than I thought then.
Might even be hope for him in getting a real job perhaps?
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