Post by The Big Daddy C-Master on Nov 24, 2015 6:02:10 GMT -5
People often say that politicians have to "sacrifice their career" for their country by doing a "low paying job". Turns out being a politician (even a failed one) pays very well.
beta.finance.yahoo.com/news/these-candidates-are-getting-rich-running-for-president-151828707.html?ltr=1#
Ben Carson fashions himself a political novice, but he’s an expert at one crucial political skill: cashing in on public exposure.
Carson, perhaps more than any other presidential candidate, is profiting handsomely from the fame he has gained as a popular upstart contender for the Republican nomination. And unlike most candidates who put their business interests on hold while campaigning, Carson has continued to earn lavish speaking fees as a candidate, while also raking in book royalties and income from other sources.
Right behind Carson in the presidential windfall sweepstakes is Donald Trump, whose new book, "Crippled America," has sold more than 50,000 copies in less than one month, according to Nielsen Bookscan and other sources. Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have also penned timely books that are selling well as they ride the coattails of the campaign.
Hillary Clinton’s two books, by contrast, have generated little new interest this year, perhaps because she's already sold nearly 1.7 million copies, combined, and everybody who wants to know about her already does. New books by Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina and Bernie Sanders haven’t really caught on, either. And a few of the candidates, including Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Martin O’Malley appear to have done little so far to profit from the visibility brought by the campaign—though there will be opportunities to do that later, of course.
Much of the attention lavished on the presidential campaign focuses on policy debates, temperament, scandal and who’s most qualified to govern. At Yahoo Finance, we’ve been looking into one other aspect of the 2016 race: Running for president as a business model, even for candidates with little chance of winning. Earlier this year, for instance, we explored how the exposure Huckabee garnered while running for president in 2008 helped boost his name recognition, which in turn generated a sevenfold increase in his income from paid speeches and a similar gusher of book income.
Here are rough estimates of the earnings of eight presidential candidates from select book sales in 2015. Totals for each author are highlighted in yellow:
(Methodology: We used sales figures from Nielsen Bookscan, which captures about two-thirds of all U.S. book sales. Year-to-date totals are through the week of Nov. 18. We computed income by assuming the author gets 15% of the cover price for every hardcover sale and 10% for paperbacks, which are fairly typical royalty percentages. We then increased that figure by 30% to account for sales Bookscan doesn’t track. Notes: Since Jeb Bush's 2015 book, Reply All, was self-published, no sales data is available. But the book ranks below 150,000 in its category on Amazon, indicating poor sales. Chris Christie, John Kasich, Lindsey Graham, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley and Rick Santorum either have no books to their name or they've earned less than $10,000 from book sales so far in 2015.)
Our income numbers are probably low, since we didn’t account for the advance against royalties publishers typically pay authors, which can easily top $1 million for best-selling celebrities. Popular authors may also be able to negotiate better terms than what might be standard in the industry. Carson, for instance, earned as much as $3.2 million on book royalties during the 18 months ending June 30, 2015, according to disclosure forms filed with the government.
beta.finance.yahoo.com/news/these-candidates-are-getting-rich-running-for-president-151828707.html?ltr=1#
Ben Carson fashions himself a political novice, but he’s an expert at one crucial political skill: cashing in on public exposure.
Carson, perhaps more than any other presidential candidate, is profiting handsomely from the fame he has gained as a popular upstart contender for the Republican nomination. And unlike most candidates who put their business interests on hold while campaigning, Carson has continued to earn lavish speaking fees as a candidate, while also raking in book royalties and income from other sources.
Right behind Carson in the presidential windfall sweepstakes is Donald Trump, whose new book, "Crippled America," has sold more than 50,000 copies in less than one month, according to Nielsen Bookscan and other sources. Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have also penned timely books that are selling well as they ride the coattails of the campaign.
Hillary Clinton’s two books, by contrast, have generated little new interest this year, perhaps because she's already sold nearly 1.7 million copies, combined, and everybody who wants to know about her already does. New books by Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina and Bernie Sanders haven’t really caught on, either. And a few of the candidates, including Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Martin O’Malley appear to have done little so far to profit from the visibility brought by the campaign—though there will be opportunities to do that later, of course.
Much of the attention lavished on the presidential campaign focuses on policy debates, temperament, scandal and who’s most qualified to govern. At Yahoo Finance, we’ve been looking into one other aspect of the 2016 race: Running for president as a business model, even for candidates with little chance of winning. Earlier this year, for instance, we explored how the exposure Huckabee garnered while running for president in 2008 helped boost his name recognition, which in turn generated a sevenfold increase in his income from paid speeches and a similar gusher of book income.
Here are rough estimates of the earnings of eight presidential candidates from select book sales in 2015. Totals for each author are highlighted in yellow:
(Methodology: We used sales figures from Nielsen Bookscan, which captures about two-thirds of all U.S. book sales. Year-to-date totals are through the week of Nov. 18. We computed income by assuming the author gets 15% of the cover price for every hardcover sale and 10% for paperbacks, which are fairly typical royalty percentages. We then increased that figure by 30% to account for sales Bookscan doesn’t track. Notes: Since Jeb Bush's 2015 book, Reply All, was self-published, no sales data is available. But the book ranks below 150,000 in its category on Amazon, indicating poor sales. Chris Christie, John Kasich, Lindsey Graham, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley and Rick Santorum either have no books to their name or they've earned less than $10,000 from book sales so far in 2015.)
Our income numbers are probably low, since we didn’t account for the advance against royalties publishers typically pay authors, which can easily top $1 million for best-selling celebrities. Popular authors may also be able to negotiate better terms than what might be standard in the industry. Carson, for instance, earned as much as $3.2 million on book royalties during the 18 months ending June 30, 2015, according to disclosure forms filed with the government.
