March 24, 2010, - 3:00 pm
Semantics of Vannity: New Hannity Soldiers Scam – “Buy My Book, (Non-Existent) Profits Go to Troops Charity”
I recently told you about the scam called “Freedom Concerts” and the Freedom Alliance, the charity that spends most of its money on wasteful expenses and consultants and very little on severely wounded American soldiers and scholarships for the children of fallen soldiers. I showed you that, while Hannity lied to his radio audience, stating that a $30,000 donation from Boca Java would pay for a whole year in college for one of these kids, in fact Freedom Alliance has yet to pay for the whole year in college for a single such child of an American soldier who died in battle. In fact, I’ve since discovered that the scam is even larger than I originally reported, that in fact–despite his denials–Freedom Concert money, in fact, went to fly Hannity around the country in private jets and put him and his family and friends in swanky hotel suites. I’ll be writing more about this in the coming days.
Wyclef Sean – New Hannity Scam:
“Buy My Book; [Non-Existent] ‘Profits’ Will go to Troops”
For now, though, let’s take a look at Hannity’s latest fraud on his blind followers and listeners. Next week, “Conservative Victory,” Sean Hannity’s new book will be released. Hannity said that he will donate all of the proceeds of the book to the Freedom Alliance. But that’s a semantics game and a cute trick. In fact, few books–the biggest best sellers among them–ever have “proceeds” or “profits,” and that’s likely to be the case here.
What Freedom Alliance does with the money and how the organization wastes it on expenses is one thing, but the larger question is: how much money will they actually see from Hannity’s book, which he is marketing as something that will help the injured troops and the kids of fallen troops? Very little, it appears.
The key word is “proceeds.” Anyone who knows anything about the publishing industry knows that there are almost always zero proceeds for a book. The real money is paid up front in the form of an “advance.” And until the book sells enough copies to pay back that advance plus all printing/publishing and marketing costs, there are almost never any “proceeds” or “profits.” That’s likely to be the case with Hannity’s book, even if it’s a mega-best seller. That’s because Hannity, industry sources say, got an advance on his book of about $1 million. Think Hannity wrote a check and gave that million to Freedom Alliance? Think again.
And because his book is a paperback and, therefore, has a lower cover price, only about $1 per book will go to cover the advance. The rest has to go for those other costs: paper, printing, marketing, etc. The publisher will have to sell at least a million books to break even.
But that’s not all. Hannity announced a 17-city promotional tour to promote the book. That means more private planes, luxe SUVs, and hotel suites for Hannity and his entourage, including his FOX News and nationally syndicated radio show producers. And that eats into any proceeds after the million books, assuming he sells that many. Plus, he’s bringing Sarah Palin on his book tour, too. More costs.
Given all this, it’s unlikely Freedom Alliance will ever see any “proceeds” or “profits” from this book. And even if the group did, well . . . you know its dismal record of giving very little to severely wounded troops and the children of the fallen.
The next time Sean Hannity announces he’s giving the “profits” or “proceeds” of anything to charity, do the math and use your critical thinking skills. And you’ll see the end result: bupkus. And he knows that, which is why he’s misleading people with yet another semantics game.
But it’s a great marketing technique that’ll help him sell more books. His blind faith minions will be echoing the mindless drivel: “Sean’s supporting the troops.”
“Great American”? Not even close. But definitely a great capitalist.
Tags: advance, book, Charity, children of the fallen, Conservative Victory, Freedom Alliance, no profits, proceeds, profits, scam, scholarships, Sean Hannity, semantics, soldiers, wounded soldiers
Hannity may not be a conservative genius.. but he’s good at self-promotion. In the end, it will always be all about him.
NormanF on March 24, 2010 at 3:17 pm