About the sales for Bolton's book: Not buying his book might hurt Bolton's pride, and will hurt the publisher, but probably not Bolton.

Here is how book contracts work. (Spoiler: It's not fair to ordinary writers.) There is a standard royalty scale in the industry . . . https://twitter.com/BarbMcQuade/status/1273269024575586305

. . . and most writers get a modest advance against royalties. Once the book "earns out," meaning that they've sold enough book to cover their advance, they start earning royalties. So if you get $50K for your book, and each book earns a certain (always small) percentage . . .

. . . in royalties, you'll start getting money when the royalties on sold books equals your advance (say, $30K).

Now, instead of offering a celebrity a higher royalty scale, they offer the standard royalty with an enormous advance that will never actually earn out. . .

. . . so the author who gets a $2 million advance knows that's all the money he will see. If the book flops, the publisher loses.

It's a sneaky way of giving celebrities a much higher advance than ordinary writers.

Whether a book is a "bestseller" is based on how quickly. . .

. . . the book sells, not how many books are eventually sold. But bestseller lists are another story. I stopped paying attention a few years ago, but they used to be easily manipulated.

So anyway, not buying Bolton's book doesn't lessen his income . . .

. . . this does NOT mean buy it.

Publishers should not be giving $2 million to someone like Bolton when so many writers struggle to earn a living and get advances in the neighborhood of $10K or less, with royalties a pittance.

It does however make the lawsuit humorous. . .

. . . Trump and the DOJ are suing for "profits." So would that mean money Bolton earns beyond $2 million?

They didn't sue the publisher, so they're not going for publisher profits.

Not buying the book also hurts Bolton's pride . . .