Hillary Clinton a political rock star?
She’s charging Springsteen prices for primo seats in her upcoming tour to promote her memoir about the 2016 election, “What Happened,” but she’s getting raspberries from all sides.
Liberal outlets such as MSNBC have gently mocked her for charging hundreds of dollars, even $1,000 and more, for some seats on her “Hillary Clinton Live” tour, which kicks off Sept. 18. And critics on the right needed little encouragement to bash anew the progressive heroine with distinct mercenary tendencies, which to them have no bounds. “Clinton is about to cash in on her election loss,” the New York Post announced in a headline.
But some book industry experts say the tour may signify little more than “what the market can bear.” That suggestion comes from none other than Marji Ross, president of the conservative Regnery Publishing house, who can hardly be considered a Clinton apologist. Though the prices “might be a little unseemly,” she told RealClearInvestigations, Ross doesn’t see anything that’s “terribly unusual” about the Clinton tour.
In this case, the market seems to be demanding that Clinton hold her readings at spacious theaters and auditoriums instead of musty book shops or mall chain stores.
The cheapest seats are $55, many are more than $100 and a few VIP packages that include meet-and-greets are $750 per ticket in New York and more than $1,000 in Toronto. The Chicago Tribune reports “brisk sales.” So if money talks, then the people ponying up are making themselves quite clear.
The prices recall Clinton’s answer when CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked her about the fees Goldman Sachs had paid her for three speeches. "Did you have to be paid $675,000?" Cooper asked.
"I don't know,” Clinton responded. “That's what they offered."
Clinton is out of office, so it will be hard to accuse ticket buyers of trying to purchase influence along with their signed copies.
Calvin Reid, senior news editor for Publishers Weekly, noted that the marketing and promotion of a book “is often tied to how much the publisher has invested in the author.”
And Simon & Schuster has invested plenty in Hillary Clinton. It paid a multi-million-dollar advance for her 2014 book, “Hard Choices,” but reportedly failed to earn it back. Terms of their latest deal have not been disclosed. Clinton and her husband, Bill, have taken in more than $23 million from their previous books, according to Forbes.
Reid noted that Clinton’s tour stands out in part because publishers have come to question the cost-effectiveness of such publicity swings.
“There is some thought they don't really generate a lot of sales,” he said. “But authors tend to love them and with social media, it’s become a bit easier and more predictable to promote them.”
And so the organizers think enough people will pay to see Clinton, in some cases more than seeing a music legend or a popular stage production. The most expensive tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s extended run of concerts at New York City’s Walter Kerr Theatre are $850 while the play “Hamilton” has the top-price Broadway ticket at $849.
Reid says that “everything about this tour will be bigger and more grand than any other book tour, except maybe a book tour by her husband.”
Book tours as big-ticket entertainment reflect the way our culture works today, at least when it comes to high-profile personalities. Cornell economics and management professor Robert Frank says that “the broad trend in markets like these is the dollars are being concentrated on the more visible players."
Frank said that while the public “has problems with people exploiting their public positions for personal gain,” there is an easy way for Clinton to sidestep those charges: She could donate tour revenue to the victims of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, putting it in the hands of people who need it, unlike herself and those paying top dollar to see her.
Clinton’s ticket prices are important markers in a society that often measures prestige and power through money, said Robert J. Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. And money in the bank isn't all that's at issue.
“There are branding strategies where charging a higher price implies a higher value,” he said. “Remember Cybill Shepherd’s TV ads for L’Oréal shampoo: ‘It costs a little more . . . but I’m worth it.’ ”
Thompson said that “there’s also an interesting gender message here, as well,” considering the recent news “about how much less female actors make than their male counterparts.”
“It’s a woman in America commanding prices larger than most of her counterparts, including generals,” he said.
Although the Clintons have long been hounded by charges of selling political influence and favors, Thompson said Mrs. Clinton is probably selling a different type of access with her book tour.
“The thrill,” he said, “of being in proximity of a celebrity.”
But R. Emmett Tyrrell doubts there’ll be an encore. The founder of The American Spectator and a longtime Clinton critic believes the book tour is “the beginning of the end” for Clinton.
“We’ll see how many people will put up big bucks for sitting down with her,” he said.
