Christine Quinn's Superflop

Anyone might think a blog that loiters at the intersection of gay and books would be eager for a memoir by NYC's lesbian mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn, but I avoided it knowing every personal syllable was a political calculation. Witness her overreaching title, With Patience and Fortitude [Kindle]. What queer Irish former Mets fan talks like that? As it turns out, no one is buying it. Literally. The Daily Beast reports her first-week sales were only 100 physical copies.* They've compiled a fun list of other failed memoirs but unfortunately omit Mary Cheney's epic fail, Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life.

*Like so much in publishing, Nielsen BookScan numbers are a half-assed imitation of how real industries operate. Hollywood can tell you exactly how many tickets were sold, television can tell you exactly how many millions of viewers watched a show, Billboard can tell you exact music sales, but books? The sales are so pitiful they are generally kept secret. BookScan typically captures about 75% of physical book sales but does not include giants (Wal-Mart) or dwarfs (indies). Or ebooks.

Comments

[Sandy]

Oh, well. I guess maybe the excerpt I read in 'Vogue' was the best part of the book? It dealt with her engagement and I actually found it touching and, well, engaging. Even though I'm not a queer Irish former Mets fan.