‘Alt-Righter’ Milo Yiannopoulos Inks $250,000 Book Deal

Milo Yiannopoulos Image by Getty Images

By Daniel J. Solomon December 29, 2016

Richard Spencer, inventor of the term “alt-right” is leading Nazi salutes. Cadillac is recruiting “neo-Nazis” for a commercial. And now provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos signing a book deal worth $250,000.

Yiannopoulos identified himself early on with the “alt-right,” but more with the folks who disdain what they call “political correctness” than with the ones who use “alt-right” as a euphemism for white supremacist. Indeed, Yiannopoulus has Jewish ancestry.

“I met with top execs at Simon & Schuster earlier in the year and spent half an hour trying to shock them with lewd jokes and outrageous opinions. I thought they were going to have me escorted from the building — but instead they offered me a wheelbarrow full of money,” Yiannopoulos, technology editor at Breitbart News, told the Hollywood Reporter.

To be sure, $250,000 is a nice chunk of change, but even two years ago publishing industry observers were documenting the rise of the seven-figure advance, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Here’s how an advance typically works: An author doesn’t receive any more money from the publishing house until the house has earned back the amount of the advance in book sales. It’s also how the author’s agent gets paid; usually by deducting about 15 percent.

“Every line of attack the forces of political correctness try on me fails pathetically. I’m more powerful, more influential, and more fabulous than ever before and this book is the moment Milo goes mainstream. Social justice warriors should be scared — very scared,” he added.

Yiannopoulos has a record of stirring up controversy, directing trolls to harass female notables on Twitter, a habit that got him banned from the site earlier in the year. He was a high-profile supporter of Trump, hosting a “Gays for Trump” party at the Republican National Convention and referring to the president-elect as “Daddy.” Yiannopoulos is now on his “Dangerous Faggot” tour of American college campuses.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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