Milo Yiannopoulos, a prominent Donald Trump supporter and member of the so-called “alt-right” movement, has reportedly been offered US$250,000 for his first book.
The book is due to be published by the Threshold Editions imprint of Simon & Schuster and would be autobiographical, reported the Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.
He has announced forthcoming books twice in the last two years: one on the Gamergate controversy, which he flagged in December 2014, and one called The Sociopaths of Silicon Valley, in January 2015.
Neither has been published.
Yiannopoulos, the technology editor at far-right website Breitbart, was banned from Twitter in July for his role in the online abuse of the Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones. The chief executive of Breitbart, Steven Bannon, is Trump’s controversial choice for chief strategist in the White House.
Yiannopoulos told the Hollywood Reporter that negative publicity had only boosted his profile, likening it to MTV banning the video for Madonna’s Justify My Love in 1990 and coverage of Trump in the lead-up to the US election.
“They said banning me from Twitter would finish me off,” Yiannopoulos said. “Just as I predicted, the opposite has happened.”
He did not confirm the precise amount paid for his book, but claimed he was offered “a wheelbarrow full of money”.
“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.”
Threshold Editions was founded in 2006 “to provide a forum for … innovative ideas of contemporary conservativism”. According to its mission statement, it is “celebrating 10 years of being right!”
Its recent bestsellers include works by the president-elect Trump, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Dick and Liz Cheney.
The Chicago Review of Books described Yiannopoulos’ book deal as a “disgusting validation of hate” and said it would boycott books published by Simon & Schuster in 2017 in protest.
In response to this disgusting validation of hate, we will not cover a single @simonschuster book in 2017. https://t.co/NAJhTgdeyX
— Chicago Rev of Books (@bookschicago) December 29, 2016
Carolyn Kellogg, the book editor of the Los Angeles Times, described Yiannopoulos as a “troll promoting racist, sexist views”.
If you approved a $250K book deal for the troll promoting racist, sexist views so extreme he got thrown off this platform - we need to talk.
— Carolyn Kellogg (@paperhaus) December 29, 2016
Karolina Sutton, a literary agent at Curtis Brown representing authors including Margaret Atwood and Haruki Murakami in the UK, said publishers had to decide “where they would draw the line, what books they wouldn’t take on”.
Publishers & agents get to ask themselves daily where they would draw the line, what books they wouldn't take on. The answer defines us.
— Karolina Sutton (@KarolinaSutton) December 29, 2016
Simon & Schuster has been contacted by the Guardian for comment.
Yiannopoulos told the Hollywood Reporter that he was “more powerful, more influential and more fabulous than ever before”, and that his upcoming book would mark “the moment Milo goes mainstream”.
He is also understood to be filming highlights of his “Dangerous Faggot” speaking tour of universities in the US for a full-length feature documentary.
A talk he was scheduled to give at his former school, Langton Grammar in Kent, in November was cancelled due to security concerns.
