Sarah Palin has earned priceless name recognition by running for the US vice-presidency, but not, as yet, untold wealth. The former Alaska Governor and potential presidential candidate has so far been paid $1.25 million for her memoirs, according to disclosure statements — a fraction of the multimillion-dollar advance she was said to have received.

It is thought to be only the first instalment for a book that is already an online bestseller, three weeks before its publication, but its relatively modest scale suggests that her overall advance may be well below the $11 million mentioned in news reports when the book deal was signed in May.

Advance orders for Going Rogue: An American Life, written by Mrs Palin and a collaborator over four months this summer, pushed it briefly to the top of the Amazon.com sales rankings.

The level of reader interest in Senator John McCain’s former running-mate reflects her status as an instant icon among conservative Republicans — and a much wider fascination in a woman seen by others as a serial political disaster. Seventy per cent of Americans believe that Mrs Palin is not qualified to be president, according to recent polls.

She seldom grants interviews or attends Republican Party events, preferring to endorse local election candidates and intervene in policy debates using the Facebook website. Her approval ratings have sagged during a year in which she was branded a faux hockey mom by her daughter’s former boyfriend and mocked for a resignation speech with a basketball analogy that baffled observers.

Her most passionate supporters are to be found in the Tea Party movement, which has threatened to oppose Republicans considered not radical enough, and hinted that it may endorse Mrs Palin for the 2012 presidential nomination.

However, her ability to draw crowds is unmatched by any other likely contender — a point that she may seek to prove at a fundraiser for the Iowa Family Policy Centre in Des Moines next month. Her first big speech in the US since last year’s presidential campaign would come three years before the next presidential election in the state whose caucuses often weed out the also-rans in White House primary races.

ADVANCE EARNINGS — FROM CLINTON TO HILTON

$15m Bill Clinton My Life (2004)

$8.5m Pope John Paul II Crossing the Threshold of Hope (1994)

$8.5m Alan Greenspan The Age of Turbulence ( 2007)

$8m Hillary Clinton Living History (2003)

$2m Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith, untitled autobiography (deal 2008, not yet published)

$100,000 (estimated) Paris Hilton Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek behind the Pose (2004)

Sources: Reuters, Times database

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