This year was full of juicy celebrity memoirs with stars like Britney Spears and Barbra Streisand spilling it all and Prince Harry topping the charts with his bombshell book.
But despite media frenzies, hefty advances paid to the celebs seemed to outweigh the publishers’ profits.
NewsNation’s “The Scoop” from Paula Froelich crunched the numbers to see if a book earned back its advance based on how much the books cost and how much the celebs were paid — numbers that are rarely released but leaked for Prince Harry and Spears.
“An advance is a risk 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 is worth it,” Dan Strone, CEO of literacy agency Trident Media told NewsNation.
Froelich’s analysis, which she shared with Nichole Berlie on NewsNation Live, found that “Spare,” the first of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle four-book deal with Penguin Random House, was a publicity win but a financial flop.
The prince may have received up to $20 million in advance, according to reports, but despite topping the charts, only sold 1.2 million hardcovers.
He would have had to sell double to have made back the advance.
Britney Spears’ “The Woman in Me,” which gives dirt on her conservatorship and abortion while dating Justin Timberlake, was another flop but PR win. Spears reportedly refused to do press for the book and sold 1.1 million copies but got $15 million up front.
Streisand would have had to sell almost six times more copies of her book than she sold to make it worth the publisher’s while, based on estimates of what her advance may have been.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life” and Elliott Page’s “Pageboy” were financially unclear, Froelich ruled.
Obvious flops were the low-selling reads from John Stamos, Kristin Chenowith and Leslie Jones.
“The numbers here suggest that some celebrities shouldn’t be writing memoirs at all,” PR guru Paul Bogaards told NewsNation.