NewsNation’s royal stories are sort of a fascinating case study in how the British-royalist smears bleed into American coverage. NewsNation actually “broke” some gossip about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in that various British outlets picked up the quotes and ran their own variations of the NewsNation stories. Anyway, I’m sure this one will be picked up in a big way, even if it makes absolutely no sense. You know how Prince Harry wrote a massively successful memoir and the sales completely justified his eight-figure advance from Penguin Random House? Well, NewsNation is now attacking one of Harry’s unqualified successes, because of course. They do this about every Sussex success – the Sussexes’ wedding was bad for because Meghan sent emails, the Sussexes’ South Pacific tour was bad because Meghan didn’t understand the point of walkabouts, Invictus is bad because Harry attacked the Windsors! Well, now the publishing contract is bad because… Harry needs money! And Meghan’s book proposals aren’t being accepted!

It’s no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle need to make money — their mortgage and security costs alone are in the millions — but you can’t drink from the same well twice. The couple saw their deals with Netflix, Spotify and Limonada Media end in the last two years (with Spotify boss Bill Simmons calling the two “f—— grifters”), and their only deal technically left standing is with publisher Penguin Random House.

But I hear that too is over — if only because the two are “annoying” and can’t come up with any good ideas for more books. The initial deal was for a multi-book deal and worth between $40 million (depending on deliverables).

Harry collected $20 million for his 2023 memoir “Spare,” knocked it out of the park with over 6 million copies sold — but it seems he wants more money. My publishing insider said, “The executives at Penguin Random House are fielding near weekly calls from camp Sussex asking for more money., They think there are royalties, but there aren’t. Penguin overpaid and, with marketing, printing and other costs, even with millions of copies sold, they will never earn out or get royalties.”

While the executives understand the Sussexes’ asking, one said: “Harry has a fundamental disconnect to the concept of money, and certainly that money can, indeed, run out.”

Meanwhile, the publisher has received at least two proposals from Markle, which were “turned down.” It has been reported that Markle wanted to do a book on leadership and philanthropy and a “divorce” book — both of which were turned down.

(Reps for the Sussexes denied the divorce book.)

“Penguin Random House is done with (the Sussexes.) It will never publish another book by them. They were (financially) burned,” my source said. A rep for the couple didn’t return emails.

[From NewsNation]

Just days before Spare was published in 2023, actual publishing analysts went on the record about what sales numbers Harry needed to hit to justify his advance. Those analysts basically argued that the break-even number for Penguin Random House was about 2 million hardcovers sold. Which Spare did in its first week. Penguin Random House also wasn’t spending lavishly on promotion – they came up with a pretty simple promotional plan involving a half-dozen interviews with Harry and left it at that. Why do more when Spare got millions of dollars worth of free publicity? I’ve always been iffy about the “$40 million contract” for multiple books – I was never sure which report to believe, but I absolutely believe that Harry made a great deal of money from Spare, not just the advance, but in royalties. This report just comes across as yet another attempt to denigrate Harry and Meghan’s successes and make it sound like everyone, in every industry, hates them and refuses to work with them. It’s insane. It’s also insane to claim that publishers wouldn’t pay top dollar for Meghan’s memoir.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.