The Hill Clutches Pearls About Vice President Vance's Book Royalties

People write books for a reason, and one of the primary reasons is to make money. A best-selling book can launch someone into the stratosphere. 'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling wrote the first book while on the dole and she's now among the world's richest people.

Most people know this, except for the people at The Hill, it seems. They have stumbled upon a story they're trying to frame as a scandal: namely, that Vice President J.D. Vance earned royalties from his book 'Hillbilly Elegy' and that those royalties 'boosted his earnings.'

Vance's financial disclosure shows 'Hillbilly Elegy' royalties boost his earningshttps://t.co/u9aN7lNQcj
— The Hill (@thehill) July 4, 2026

Truly groundbreaking journalism right here.

Here's more:

Vance made between $1 million and $5 million in domestic royalties from publisher HarperCollins, up from the $50,001 to $100,000 range he reported earning a year earlier.
The rest of his portfolio, however, was more stagnant. Vance continued to hold between $250,001 and $500,000 in bitcoin — unchanged from last year’s reported range. He earned less than $201 in his Coinbase account holding his cryptocurrency investments.
Vance reported deals with foreign publishers, including in Germany, Japan and Brazil. His largest upfront payout from an international agreement came from Chinese publisher Beijing Mediatime, which paid Vance $59,500.

A best-selling book that was adapted into a critically acclaimed movie made its author a nice chunk of change. The scandal.

Your Pulitzer is in the mail.
— Grateful Calvin (@shoveitjack) July 4, 2026

The book View from the East Wing hit #1 on the NYT list with that big fat dagger symbol — the official “yeah, bulk and institutional buys carried this” flag.

It sold around 29,500 print copies in the first couple weeks, then cratered straight off the list in record time. Nate…
— Helen Sexton (@Helen_Sexton3) June 30, 2026

The same thing happened when a PAC affiliated with Gavin Newsom bought two-thirds of his total book sales.

Gavin Newsom became a New York Times bestseller.

By having his PAC buy two-thirds of his book sales. 🤣

Everything about this guy is so fake... pic.twitter.com/DmcitfDyGq
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) April 18, 2026

The system is rigged to favor Leftists, and when a conservative legitimately does well, it's suddenly problematic.

That's the game here. There is no scandal, there is no story. Vance wrote a book that did really well and was turned into a movie for which Glenn Close received an Academy Award nomination. He earned that money, and the Left is trying to paint it as something shady and corrupt.

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