Michael Wolff could reap $7.4 million from Fire and Fury

Michael Wolff may have already reaped $1 million from his controversial book about U.S. President Donald Trump and stands to earn $7.4 million or more if readers snap up copies now on the way to stores.

“Fire and Fury,” his account of Trump’s first year in the White House, is selling so fast that bookstores have run out and his publisher is rushing to deliver more.

Publishing economics can be complicated, and details of Wolff ’s contract aren’t public. Neither the author nor his publisher, Henry Holt & Co., a division of Macmillan, responded to requests for comment. But to get a rough estimate of what Wolff has made so far, let’s assume he gets 15 per cent of the book’s list price — a typical royalty rate — and a $500,000 advance.

In its first two days, Wolff ’s book, with a list price of $30, sold more than 29,000 hardcover copies, according to NPD BookScan, which tracks 85 per cent of the U.S. market. Retailers also sold 250,000 ebooks, and 100,000 audio books, the publisher told the Associated Press on Jan. 10. They go for $14.99 and $27.99.

Add up all those sales, multiplied by the prices, and you get revenue of $7.42 million. Subtract the advance, and at 15 per cent he gets $1.11 million.

Wolff stands to make much more. While updated NPD sales figures won’t be available until Jan. 17, his publisher said Thursday there are 1.4 million hardcover copies in the pipeline. If those sell, he stands to collect another $6.3 million.