I’ll save you the counting on your fingers: that’s a minimum of $10 million.
It’s a boggling amount of money, enough to make you crack a filling. This mondo deal was announced yesterday, and includes a new book by Bessel “The Scorekeeper” van der Kolk, MD called Come to Your Senses, as well as a workbook and two kids books.
I’m a little disappointed the title isn’t The Body Keeps The Score 2: Overtime, or Body: 1, You: 0 — We’re Still Keeping Score, or The Body Keeps The MORE!, or Another Book That’s Essential for Your Public Persona. Happy to consult on book three’s title, though.
This bigger-than-big deal reflects the popularity of van der Kolk’s Body Keeps the Score, which has sold millions of copies in 36 languages and spent nearly seven years on the Times’s Bestseller List as of August 2025.
According to a 2022 poll, the average American would use $10 million to pay off debts, grimly. But what else can van der Kolk buy with this payday? Here’s a menu:
– One average NBA salary for the 2023-24 season.
– A single episode of The Crown
– The yearly athletic budget for Indiana-Purdue Indianapolis
– 625, 000 “The body keeps the score, I can’t find the scoreboard” mugs
– 545, 553 pizzas
– One life, according to US Federal agencies’s valuation
– One used yacht in Florida
– 416 ,666 “My Body (Bed) Keeps The Score (Crumbs)” T-shirts
– One Broadway musical
– 555 ,555 copies of The Body Keeps The Score
$10 million is also $250,000 advances for 40 other books, which is my major complaint with giant deals like this. This isn’t to knock van der Kolk’s book—a book on mental health being so popular feels like a win—but fewer and fewer books getting larger and larger deals is a worrying trend. As with Joe “Human Graphic Tee” Rogan’s bloated $250 million Spotify deal or the nearly $8 billion dollars spent on Marvel movies since 2008, creative industries seem increasingly interested in chasing whales and netting big scores.
It may net more profit, but it crowds out other projects, which means fewer movies, music, and books get made. This means we get to hear from fewer voices, fewer new perspectives, and only an elite few will be able to make it as artists. It might be a win for the balance sheet, but it’s a loss for culture.