In defense of Scott McClellan by Alex Koppelman, Salon Article

Scotty's big advance: Under $100,000.00.

If former White House press secretary Scott McClellan had really penned his memoir to make a pile of money, as current and former administration officials claim, he couldn't have chosen a worse publisher.

PublicAffairs Press is notorious for paying modest advances -- and its notoriety is especially pronounced around my house. I've had one book published by PublicAffairs and have another one in the works. When my wife saw the size of the first advance she wondered if I was really so desperate that I needed to turn to a vanity press. It was joke, but it had a toehold in reality.

After listening to McClellan's critics pile on, accusing him of cashing in, on the "Today" show, I called his editor, Lisa Kaufman. She also happens to be my editor. "So, what about it?" I wanted to know. "How much did McClellan get? As much as his most famous critic, Karl Rove, got from Simon & Schuster for his as-yet-unpublished memoir -- around $1.5 million?"

Lisa laughed. While she wouldn't reveal the exact figure, she narrowed it enough to lay the money-grubbing charges to rest: It was a five-figure advance. Not just under $1 million, but under $100,000. If Rove and company really think McClellan wrote this book for the money ... well, I'll put this in Texan: He's so dumb he couldn't pour piss from a boot if the directions were printed on the heel.

rest of the article @ link:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/05/29/mcclellan_publisher/