This post is in response to the flurry of supposed controversy surrounding Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s book appearances and sales according to the Associated Press. Or as Margaret McMullen questioned in the Washington Post, was it a bribe to invite a justice to the Mississippi Book Festival to speak, when she refused payment and gave a great presentation being very present for all the children who came to hear her? Was it a bribe if the justice engaged with the kids in the room and earnestly asked them questions?
All questions of the ethics Supreme Court Justices earning outside income aside, the AP article is rather quaint in its understanding of how celebrity authors on book tour operate. Justice Sotomayor sounds positively wonderful to work with, though her story does illuminate a problem in the book industry. The AP article bristles at the fact that an author on book tour might suggest (almost require) that a venue make a large book order for their appearance. The reality is that this is far too common for celebrity authors.
By celebrity authors, I mean both excellent writers who have won major awards for their books and have therefore reached the highest echelons of literary stardom and writers who are politicians or celebrities in their own right and whose fame grants them a similar status. Much of the outrage in the AP article should not be directed at the Justice, but at an industry that not only allows this star system, but promotes it.
As someone who organizes a literary event, the Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium, I have long known that there are two types of authors: those I can afford and those who are completely out of my league. In recent years, the divide between these two types of authors has grown ever wider. Recently, I reached out to a relatively well-known writer to see which group he would fall in. I had some grant money, so I thought it might be possible to bring him to campus, though I expected it to be a long shot. I was not surprised when the initial response to my invitation was that the famous author’s usual speaking fee was at least $30,000 — they might be willing to come down a bit if I could guarantee a bulk book order. I was working with a local group, so I was able to suggest a sizable number of books we could buy. Judging from the AP article and the fact that this author ultimately turned us down, that number wasn’t high enough.
I tell this story not to shame this author who will remain unnamed, but to point out that asking for a large book buy is not at all uncommon, especially when the speaker is willing to come for a smaller fee (or in the case of Justice Sotomayor, possibly none). Her publisher wants to sell books. Her publicist and/or speaker’s bureau wants to sell books. Yes, the Justice earns royalties on those books, though only if they sell enough copies to earn back the advance. And large universities or other organizations with large enough coffers are willing to pay out large honoraria and/or purchase large quantities of books in order to bring in a celebrity.
There remain the questions of whether a Justice’s staff should be involved in this side-business and whether a justice or other office-holder should be able to make money on the side this way. Those questions may be legitimate, though they are not nearly as scandalous as the questions about other justices who have received lavish gifts from billionaires that have gone unreported.
The fact of the matter is that the way celebrity authors operate may be outrageous. The fact that Justice Sotomayor participates in that business is hardly surprising, though. Book publishers, publicists, speaker’s bureaus, all profit from book sales and/or their cut of an author’s speaking fees. There is pressure on authors to sell as many books as possible and to earn money for their agents. Usually the author isn’t part of those negotiations, but only signs off on a lucrative contract that the publicist or speaker’s bureau has arranged. You can’t really blame a writer for taking advantage of a system and profiting from the fame they’ve finally achieved.
Nonetheless, I am more sympathetic to the 90% of authors (maybe more) who labor in the trenches, whose books sell modest amounts, and who are very glad to come to my event for what I consider a generous honorarium to speak for forty minutes and be entertained for the rest of the weekend. These authors are entirely gracious. They engage with the audience and with each other, and there is not such a great divide between the top draws and the lesser-known writers with a debut novel or poetry collection. As a general rule, I’m happy to leave the celebrity authors to their world of glitz and exorbitant fees. That may be sour grapes, but I’ll take a writer who is willing to appear for a reasonable honorarium over a prima donna any day. That includes the vast majority of writers, so I have no dearth of excellent books to choose from.
Kendall Dunkelberg 