Signs and omens

We greatly enjoyed the news regarding the rollout of the new biography of (Don’t Forget to Call Her Doctor) Jill Biden’s biography by AP reporters Julie Pace and Darlene Superville. What was the news? The sales were dismal. We filed the news under “Signs and omens.”

I feel obligated to update that post with Bloomberg’s report that Kamala Harris collected some $450,000 in book royalties during her first year in office. Harris reported roughly $325,000 in royalties for The Truths We Hold: An American Journey — and the big bucks should reflect sales rather than an advance. The truths Harris held were set forth in 2019, for her disastrous presidential run. The royalties are reported in Harris’s annual financial disclosure covering 2021.

As I recall, one of the truths Harris held during her presidential campaign was that Joe Biden’s racism in office as a United States Senator made her cry when she was a child. The guy is that old.

With a little help from her friends, Harris also concocted a 2019 children’s book out of her life. She picked up $130,000 for Superheroes Are Everywhere. Whereas Superheroes was aimed at the children’s market, The Truths We Hold was aimed at credulous adults, such as Carlos Lozada, who reviewed it for the Washington Post. By contrast with the success of her unabridged book for credulous adults, the abridged young reader’s edition of The Truths We Hold is reported to have generated less than $201 in royalties.

Harris’s reported royalties left President Biden’s in the dust. Biden reported between $15,001 and $50,000 in royalties for Promise Me, Dad, his 2018 memoir about his late son Beau. Biden reported no royalties on his 2007 campaign memoir Promises To Keep.

The White House has posted the current 2022 disclosure forms for calendar year 2021 online here (Biden) and here (Harris).

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