Comedian Sarah Silverman was among the many people left fuming today by the announcement that senior Breitbart editor and self-styled 'internet supervillain' Milo Yiannopoulos had signed a $250,000 book deal.

Yiannopoulos, who has denounced transgender people as 'mentally ill', called feminism 'cancer' and said the Black Lives Matter movement is a 'hate group', among other remarks, signed the deal with Simon & Schuster's conservative imprint.

That news led to a pushback against the publishing company online, with Silverman among the appalled objectors.

Signed: Self-consciously controversial conservative writer Milo Yiannopoulos has signed a $250,000 book deal with Simon & Schuster's Threshold imprint, it emerged today

Upset: Comedian Sarah Silverman was among many who took to Twitter to object to the news of the contract. Yiannopoulos has made a career out of making 'shocking' remarks

'Gross': Silverman said that signing the writer up told her 'a LOT' about the company. He has called transgender people mentally ill and said Black Lives Matter was a hate group

'The guy has freedom of speech but to fund him & give him a platform tells me a LOT about @simonschuster YUCK AND BOO AND GROSS,' she tweeted.

Silverman wasn't alone.

Carolyn Kellogg, the book editor of the LA Times, tweeted: 'If you approved a $250K book deal for the troll promoting racist, sexist views so extreme he got thrown off this platform - we need to talk.'

Yiannopoulos was kicked off Twitter in July after his followers hounded black comedian and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones off Twitter with racist abuse. He denied playing a role in that, although critics doubted his sincerity.

The Chicago Review of Books was even stronger in its contempt for the Simon & Schuster deal, saying: 'In response to this disgusting validation of hate, we will not cover a single @simonschuster book in 2017.'

And the response from regular Twitter users was even stronger.

'Hey @simonschuster since you seem to like lewdness & hate, here you go: Not another cent to you f**king c**nts. Ever,' wrote Twitter user Emi Giles.

'@simonschuster Have you considered that liberals buy more books than neo-Nazis? Could damage your whole business,' said David Jorgonson.

The neo-Nazi claim has been directed at Yiannopoulos and his followers before. This time some of them reclaimed the imagery.

One tweeted a photograph of Nazis burning books to Silverman - who is Jewish - with the message 'Where first you burn books you will end up burning human beings.'

'Hate': This Twitter user promised to never buy a Simon & Schuster book again. Yiannopoulos was kicked off Twitter earlier this year after his followers hounded Leslie Jones off the site

Barred: The Chicago Review of Books said that it would not cover a single Simon & Schuster book in 2017 for 'validating hate'. Yiannopoulos denied any connection to the Jones attacks

Yiannopoulos gleefully accepted the criticism about the book, which is titled 'Dangerous' and will focus on the rise of the 'populist, nationalist Trump phenomenon'.

On his Facebook account, the self-styled 'dangerous f**got' said: 'the progressive left... shame and bully and silence anyone with the wrong opinions -- especially, shock horror, a gay conservative!

'Well, they tried this hateful approach before and it got Trump elected. Any guesses what the result will be this time? Keep screeching, Twitter losers! Your impotent fury heats my pool.'

Fan: This fan of Yiannopoulos tweeted this picture of Nazis to Silverman - who is Jewish - implying that those who object to his books were fascists

As of 11pm Thursday the book was ranked number one in Amazon's 'Censorship' and 'Political' categories, number two in 'Commentary and Opinion' and number 73 in all books. It is due to be released on March 14 next year.

Yiannopoulos, who has previously rejected claims that he is anti-Semitic and racist, signed the contract not with the main Simon & Schuster group, but with its conservative imprint Threshold.

Threshold has printed books by other conservative figures including Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh.