Hillary Clinton charging big bucks for book tour events
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Hillary Clinton is ready to talk about “what happened.” But if you want to hear her speak about it in person, you may have to spend some serious dough.
Starting next month, the former Democratic presidential nominee embarks on a tour across the United States and Canada to promote “What Happened,” her memoir about running against Donald Trump for president. And the price for access is a throwback to campaign fundraisers.
For $2,375.95 (or $3,000 in Canadian dollars), Clinton fans in Toronto can obtain a “VIP platinum ticket” for her Sept. 28 talk. That ticket includes two front-row seats, a photo with Clinton backstage and a signed book.
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For the same price, VIP tickets are also available during Clinton’s upcoming appearances in Montreal and Vancouver.
The steep ticket prices have not gone unnoticed in the publishing industry.
“It is standard for high profile authors to do book tours that sell tickets to events, but Clinton's tour takes it to a new level of greed,” an industry source told Fox News.
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But Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Clinton’s book, defended the practice. A spokesman said Wednesday it is “customary for a venue to charge for tickets at events featuring high profile writers.”
“Tickets typically include a book,” Cary Goldstein, the executive director of publicity at Simon & Schuster, told Fox News. “Such was the case with tours for recent books by Megyn Kelly, Bob Gates, and any number of public personalities. Lecture venues have become a central component of book tours for public figures.”
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General admission tickets to Clinton's events are offered, too, for a lower price than the VIP versions. In Toronto, all the $70.49 (or $89 in Canadian currency) tickets for Clinton’s lecture already have sold out.
Ticket prices for Clinton’s events vary, depending on the location. In Broward, Fla., they range from $50 to $375 a ticket for an Oct. 3 appearance.
For Clinton’s Nov. 1 event in New York, VIP tickets are going for $750.
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“This pay-for-access has all the political wisdom of doing another round of private speeches for Goldman Sachs, but as her book tour makes clear, at this point in her career all she cares about is cashing in,” the industry source said.
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Tickets -- especially the ones with VIP access -- to Clinton’s events appear pricier than lectures with other major figures in the past.
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Tickets to former Secretary of Defense Gates’s first major book event in 2014 cost $30.
Clinton’s book is set for release on Sept. 12.
Earlier this week, Simon & Schuster announced the first 15 cities Clinton will visit on her tour.
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Her first appearance is Sept. 18 at the Warner Theater in Washington. The tour will take her through Canada as well as Florida, California, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Wisconsin, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington state and Oregon.
Promoting the tour in a news release this week, the publishing house said Clinton will “connect with audiences with a story that’s personal, raw, detailed and surprisingly funny.”
“Come join Hillary as she lets loose about her experience as a woman in politics, and other topics, in a way she never has before,” it said.