Woke books bought for huge advances by ‘inexperienced’ editors hired post-George Floyd have FLOPPED, including $500k ‘queer feminist’ novel that’s sold just 3,500 copies and Elliot Page’s $3m transgender memoir

Woke books bought for huge sales by ‘inexperienced’ editors have failed commercially, say insiders.

“Ideological fanatics” who allow their politics to dictate professional decisions have seen profits collapse, according to industry experts.

One of the works responsible for enormous losses is a long-awaited memoir by actor Eliot Page about his transition. ‘Pageboy’ was sold for a $3 million advance, but only sold 68,000 copies.

By industry standards, paying about $7 per book sold is considered a good deal for publishers, according to insiders who spoke to them The free press.

It means that even novels that sell tens of thousands of copies, like Page’s, can still be sold commercially.

However, the book sold only 68,000 copies, and some labeled it a flop

Other recent “woke” flops include “Dear Miss Metropolitan” by Carolyn Ferrell. The novel was acquired in a deal estimated to be worth more than $250,000, but has shifted only 3,163 copies since its 2021 publication. ‘Lucky Red’ by Claudia Cravens, which has sold around 3,500 copies despite a $500,000 advance

Other recent “woke” flops include that of Carolyn Ferrell, “Dear Miss Metropolitan,” described by the New York Times as ‘a story of three young girls, black and biracial, who are kidnapped and thrown into the basement of a run-down house in Queens.’

The novel was acquired in a deal estimated to be worth more than $250,000, but has shifted only 3,163 copies since its 2021 publication.

Another example is Claudia Cravens’ “queer feminist western,” “Lucky Red,” which sold about 3,500 copies despite a $500,000 advance.

Meanwhile, established white authors have complained that they face more barriers to getting published.

Crime writer James Patterson was criticized after he compared the situation to ‘just another form of racism’. He later apologized, but Joyce Carol Oates made a similar point.

‘A a friend who is a literary agent told me that he can’t even get editors to read the first novels by young white male writers, no matter how good; they’re just not interested,” she said.

It is also something that the editors themselves have recognized.

“We decided outright that we weren’t going to look at certain white male authors because we didn’t want to end up acquiring those things,” a senior editor told The Free Press.

When asked whether the editors acknowledged that they were “discriminating against writers because of the color of their skin,” the editor replied, “I don’t think it was worded so blatantly. It was phrased more as: ‘Is this the right time to defend authors from more traditional backgrounds?’ The language was often somewhat opaque.’

Some white authors have complained that they face more barriers to getting published. Crime writer James Patterson was criticized after he compared the situation to ‘just another form of racism’

While another editor at a major publishing house admitted to the paper that those who pursue more conservative works “must be prepared to deal with interpersonal discomfort, being treated as marginal or viewed with suspicion by their colleagues.”

Several industry experts noted a trend toward hiring editors of color in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the wave of anti-racist protests that followed, a move they described as “overtly political.”

Among them was Nadxieli Nieto, hired by Flatiron, who bought Rasheed Newson’s “My Government Means to Kill Me” for $250,000.

Nearly 4,500 copies have been sold to date, according to sales tracker BookScan. Although the platform does not monitor digital downloads.

Nieto joined the publishing house in the wake of the scandal over the novel American Dirt, a book about the Mexican immigrant experience written by non-Mexican author Jeanine Cummins.

Television presenter Jemele Hill sold only 5,034 copies of her book, despite positive reviews. Rasheed Newson’s ‘My Government Means to Kill Me’ for $250,000, but flops

Several industry experts noted a trend toward hiring editors of color in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the wave of anti-racist protests that followed, a move they described as “overtly political.”

Other newcomer editors include stand-up comedian Phoebe Robinson, who oversees Penguin imprint Tiny Reparations Books, and Adenike Olanrewaju, who has landed one deal since becoming editor of HarperCollins in 2021, the Free Press reports.

Before the move, Olanrewaju was a publicist at Penguin and an editorial assistant at the New York Times.

But even those with an earlier profile are not immune to a commercial flop. Former television host Jemele Hill has spent months promoting her memoir “Uphill” on various networks.

But despite a media blitz, the book sold only 5,034 copies in a few months and failed to crack the top 200 of Apple Books, USA Today or the New York Times, despite being critically acclaimed by the newspaper.

Former editor of HarperCollins and St Martin’s Press attributed the flops to ‘generational change’.

“It just so happens that the new generation in this case is a generation of ideological fanatics,” Bellow told The Free Press.