Report: Palin Pulled Down $12 Million Over Past Year

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
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Sarah Palin has spent the last year banking $12 million from book sales, speaking fees, a reality show contract, and the lucrative deal that made the former Alaska governor an official Fox News contributor, according to a report in New York.

The lengthy story locates Palin’s drive to cash in partly in the hefty legal bills she racked up during investigations into the Troopergate abuse of power scandal that dogged her during the 2008 campaign.

New York does the math on Palin’s very successful year:

Over the past year, Palin has amassed a $12 million fortune and shows no sign of slowing down. Her memoir has so far sold more than 2.2 million copies, and Palin is planning a second book with HarperCollins. This January, she signed a three-year contributor deal with Fox News worth $1 million a year, according to people familiar with the deal. In March, Palin and Burnett sold her cable show to TLC for a reported $1 million per episode, of which Palin is said to take in about $250,000 for each of the eight installments.

Other good tidbits include Palin’s business relationship with CNN commentator Mary Matalin and how she was wooed by Fox, including an offer “to build a remote-camera hookup in her Wasilla home.”

Read the whole thing here.

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