Reporting for the Weekly Standard, Daniel Halper spoke to a source at Simon & Schuster who called Hillary Clinton's book, "Hard Choices" a "bomb." The source confided, "Between us, they are nervous at S&S [Simon & Schuster]. Sales were well below expectations and the media was a disaster."
The insider provided the troubling numbers:
They sold 60,000 hard covers first week and 24,000 ebooks. The publishing house was "hoping and praying for 150,000 print first week. the 60k represents a less than 10% sell thru based on what they shipped," says the source. They will be lucky to sell 150,000 total lifetime. It's a bomb but it will be interesting to see how they spin it.
Supposedly about one million copies of Clinton's book were shipped weeks before the June 10 publication date. Softening demand may be the fact the book received less than favorable reviews, even from the left-leaning mainstream media. A few examples:
Politico's Mike Allen called the book "a newsless snore," And it’s "written so carefully not to offend that it will fuel the notion that politics infuses every part of her life ... In this book, like in 'The Lego Movie' theme song, everyone is awesome!"
The New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani said, "There is little news in the book."
And Slate's John Dickerson, who once urged President Obama to go to war against the GOP, called the book, "the low-salt, low-fat, low-calorie offering with vanilla pudding as the dessert. She goes on at great length, but not great depth."
Ms. Clinton's constant gaffes during the first week of her book tour may also be damaging demand for the new book.
Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed reports that Barnes & Noble America's largest book retailer sold 24,000 of Clinton's book during its six days of release, which is about 60% of the sales that her last memoir, "Living History" generated on its first day.
The New York Times bestseller list is released on Wednesday, and Hard Choices will certainly be near the top of the list for its first week. The question is how many weeks it remains there.