4 ms·

How does earning money from selling a book hurt your incentives to do a good job as a politician? It seems to me it makes them better: there's less temptation

by jefftk 4y ago

How does earning money from selling a book hurt your incentives to do a good job as a politician? It seems to me it makes them better: there's less temptation to take money from industries you were involved in regulating, and your book will sell better if people think you did good work in office.

starkd 4y ago
You can't possibly be this naive. The people giving them money have access to power. Even a former president has plenty of contacts within the government as well as the public stage. They can be enormously persuasive on issues with the attention they get.
- jefftk 4y ago
  While it's a lot of money it's not out of keeping with the kind of sales they would have expected for his book. In it's first month "A Promised Land" sold 3.3M copies [1] and was the best selling book in the US for 2020! It's not clear to me what sort of "access to power" connections Penguin Random House would be getting out of this, and it's very clear that they got a lot of sales. [1] https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/a-promised-land-by-barack-obama-sells-more-than-3-3-million-units-in-u-s-and-canada-in-its-first-month-of-publication/ https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/a-promis...
  - hgsgm 4y ago
    The advance is fine. The buyers are suspect. (Though in this case, the buyers are likely largely a broad base of interested citizens. Rich Democratic Party women like buying books. )
hgsgm 4y ago
Buying books in bulk (not for reading) is a standard way to bribe a politician, by laundering campaign funds to personal funds, or even sloppy direct purchases. Several politicians have been caught, from local to national. One example; https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/gop-book-deals/2021/04/15/154f3820-9ca5-11eb-b7a8-014b14aeb9e4_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/gop-book-deal...
- jefftk 4y ago
  Wouldn't that make a large advance less concerning? At $65M it will be ~decades for him to earn out, which means the marginal book has ~no effect on his finances and isn't useful for bribing him.
- shagmin 4y ago
  It seems like small fish in dollar amounts compared to other things, and I wouldn't even call it bribery so much as just unethical considering it was coming from political organizations that are responsible for helping those politicians getting elected. Plus the intent was getting the books on best sellers lists, money was just the means.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > Buying books in bulk (not for reading) is a standard way to bribe a politician Also a standard way to propagandize that the ideas within, and the author, are popular, whether or not the author is a politician. OTOH, with a relatively young (for leaving the White House) and active figure (or couple), establishing a relationship as their publisher may have worth beyond the immediate book.

by jefftk 4y ago

starkd 4y ago

You can't possibly be this naive. The people giving them money have access to power. Even a former president has plenty of contacts within the government as well as the public stage. They can be enormously persuasive on issues with the attention they get.

jefftk 4y ago
While it's a lot of money it's not out of keeping with the kind of sales they would have expected for his book. In it's first month "A Promised Land" sold 3.3M copies [1] and was the best selling book in the US for 2020! It's not clear to me what sort of "access to power" connections Penguin Random House would be getting out of this, and it's very clear that they got a lot of sales. [1] https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/a-promised-land-by-barack-obama-sells-more-than-3-3-million-units-in-u-s-and-canada-in-its-first-month-of-publication/ https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/a-promis...
- hgsgm 4y ago
  The advance is fine. The buyers are suspect. (Though in this case, the buyers are likely largely a broad base of interested citizens. Rich Democratic Party women like buying books. )

hgsgm 4y ago

Buying books in bulk (not for reading) is a standard way to bribe a politician, by laundering campaign funds to personal funds, or even sloppy direct purchases. Several politicians have been caught, from local to national. One example; https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/gop-book-deals/2021/04/15/154f3820-9ca5-11eb-b7a8-014b14aeb9e4_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/gop-book-deal...

jefftk 4y ago
Wouldn't that make a large advance less concerning? At $65M it will be ~decades for him to earn out, which means the marginal book has ~no effect on his finances and isn't useful for bribing him.
shagmin 4y ago
It seems like small fish in dollar amounts compared to other things, and I wouldn't even call it bribery so much as just unethical considering it was coming from political organizations that are responsible for helping those politicians getting elected. Plus the intent was getting the books on best sellers lists, money was just the means.
dragonwriter 4y ago
> Buying books in bulk (not for reading) is a standard way to bribe a politician Also a standard way to propagandize that the ideas within, and the author, are popular, whether or not the author is a politician. OTOH, with a relatively young (for leaving the White House) and active figure (or couple), establishing a relationship as their publisher may have worth beyond the immediate book.