A successful book increased his wealth

JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential candidate, increased his net worth by more than $800,000 through his successful book “Hillbilly Elegy,” according to Business Insider, and that doesn’t even include earnings from the Netflix film and speaking engagements based on it.

In his US Senate biography, Vance praises the Republican from Ohio as the author of the bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy” and its later adaptation as a Netflix film.

Celebrity Net Worth estimates Vance’s net worth to be approximately $5 million in 2024.

Vance’s financial disclosures show that he received $347,752 in royalties from “Hillbilly Elegy” publisher Harper Collins in 2020 and another $475,380 in royalties in 2021, Business Insider reported. According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, those royalties were only for the book and did not include the Netflix movie based on it, which came out in 2020.

The Clermont County Democratic Party accused Vance of failing to disclose how much money he earned from the Netflix adaptation of the book.

The book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” focused on the “struggles of the white American working class,” according to its Amazon.com page.

“A former Marine and Yale Law School graduate’s haunting account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, more in-depth look at the struggles of the white American working class. Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis – that of the white American working class,” the site says.

JD Vance made money with more than his bestseller

GettyJD Vance and Trump.

However, Vance has made a fortune from other ventures. “JD Vance is a venture capitalist, author, and Republican politician,” Celebrity Net Worth reported, and the National Taxpayers Union Foundation put his U.S. Senate salary at $174,000. His 2022 financial report listed more than 100 investments that also contributed to his net worth, Celebrity Net Worth reported.

According to Open Secrets.org, Vance is not even close to being one of the richest senators.

According to Politico, Vance worked for “Mithril Capital, a venture capital firm run by Silicon Valley heir Peter Thiel.”

The book and film are prominently mentioned in Vance’s biography for the U.S. Senate, which states that Vance “wrote a best-selling book, Hillbilly Elegy, which was made into a Netflix movie. He also founded a company dedicated to creating jobs and opportunity in America’s heartland.”

Trump mentioned the “Hillbilly Elegy” when he announced on Truth Social that Vance was his running mate at the Republican National Convention on July 15.

JD Vance earned thousands of dollars speaking after becoming a bestselling author

According to the Associated Press, Vance also earned thousands of dollars speaking on college campuses about the 2016 book “The Hillbilly Elegy.”

In the two years following the publication of his book, Vance “visited at least 18 universities to give commencement speeches, lectures or policy talks,” AP reported. He earned more than $70,000 for these appearances.

According to Netflix, the book was made into a Hollywood film of the same name starring actresses Glenn Close and Amy Adams.

“JD’s book, ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ became a huge bestseller and was made into a movie because of its advocacy for the hardworking men and women of our country,” Trump wrote.

“To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart,” Vance wrote in Hillbilly Elegy, according to Politico. This Scots-Irish heritage brought with it “many good qualities… but also many bad ones. We don’t like outsiders or people who are different from us, whether the difference is in how they look, how they act, or, most importantly, how they talk.”