Though he may call himself a “firebrand,” the sales figures from Rep. Matt Gaetz‘s latest book suggest otherwise. Nobody is buying what the embattled congressman is selling.
According to The Daily Beast, Gaetz broke the law when he failed to list how much he made from his crappy book Firebrand, published last September, on his financial disclosure report.
After being called out for the omission, his office said they needed “additional documentation” from the publisher and that they were “in the process of receiving that information and amending the Congressman’s financial disclosure.”
Now, almost a year after the book was released, the report has finally been updated. It shows that Gaetz pocketed $25,000 off the memoir, after giving 30% of his profits to his agent/wedding DJ, Sergio Gor.
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The Daily Beast reports:
If Gaetz’s $25,000 claim and publishing terms are accurate, the disclosure indicates Firebrand didn’t exactly burn up the charts. His reported profits suggest the memoir brought in a total of about $59,500 between August and December, netting his contracted publisher, Post Hill Press, a little less than $15,000.
Hardcover copies were originally listed for $27—new ones now go for less than $10—and you can still pick up an ebook for $14.99. To match his disclosure, a $27 price tag would come out to about 2,200 units sold. But even at the low end of $10 a pop, Gaetz would have sold fewer than 6,000 copies of Firebrand across several months.
To make matters even more embarrassing, Gaetz promoted the hell out of the book, hitting the media circuit, blasting social media, and enlisting help from Donald Trump Jr. and Sean Hannity in getting the word out.
He even got then-President Donald Trump to plug it not once but twice on Twitter before his account was permanently suspended for inciting an insurrection.
Yet despite all that, in the end, less than 6,000 copies of Firebrand sold. And we’d guess at least a few of them were purchased by federal investigators, who are probably very curious about the chapter where Gaetz writes about a New Year’s Eve trip he took to Key West in 2019 with two of his “best friends” who are now implicated in his teen sex trafficking investigation.
Both Bombardier Books—the Post Hill imprint that published the book—and distributor Simon & Schuster declined to comment on Gaetz’s dismal books sales. He hasn’t commented either. Probably because he’s too busy posting rapey photos of his new wife, Ginger, to Twitter.
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
Mack
I’m surprised he hasn’t asked the Republican National Committee to buy a couple million copies. They do for other Republicans so they look good on the Bestseller list.
jcool
all of his coworkers in d.c. hate him except marge.
Max
bonfire time.
Liquid Silver
Usually, interested groups buy copies just to stock to make the sales look OK. In this case, I don’t think anybody wants to even look interested.
Athirson
Him writing a book-assuming it was him and not a ghostwriter-was a truly dumb idea. Those who might be inclined to read it aren’t literate
Jim
So the author doesn’t realize that the purpose of the book was NOT sales!
barryaksarben
HE is a hollowman. There is no there there to paraphrase. He has nothing to say. He is just howling in the wind like a madman . Who would think he has anything to say? What advice will he give – have a rich daddy and go out and do stupid sh*t your whole life but blame others for your stunning lack of success. Id call him a pig but a pig serves at least the purpose of being edible and he doesnt even that to recommend him. Even the dumbest deplorable didnt waste their money on this waste of good paper
Mike Hunt
Love the photo with this article …. Matthew making the “0” face. Speaking of which, whatever became of little Nestor??
oceantoprairie
Did it strike anyone else that if this was a commercial flight, she was not wearing a mask?? Hmmm…
cuteguy
I guess faux news viewers are using their welfare money for their trailers instead of this book
RyanMBecker
Trump supporters, and Republicans in general, are not exactly known for being educated or literate. In fact, famed pollster Nate Silvers said that the surest way to determine whether a voter chose Clinton or Trump is to look at their education level. Research further shows that the college educated are fleeing the GOP en masse and the trend is increasing. And that’s just the way GOP leaders like it because the undereducated tend to lack the Critical Thinking skills (a required course in most colleges) needed to buy Trump’s lies.