Is this man the next…

…JK Rowling? Probably not.

According to Neilsen BookScan, which tracks sales for about 85% of the US print market, Andrew Cuomo’s memoir, All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life, sold a whopping 948 copies in its first week.  Adjusting for the roughly 15% usually missed by BookScan, it looks as if Cuomo’s book was purchased by about 1,100 people.  HarperCollins supposedly gave Cuomo an advance of more than $700,000, so maybe the publisher bought political influence in addition to this turd of a book.  Asked about Cuomo’s book sales, publishing executive Positive Johnson said, “It’s early yet, but with this kind of start, he’s being looked at to take over the Harry Potter franchise.”

Actually if no one but Cuomo’s book buyers showed up at MCU Park for Brooklyn Cyclones minor league home games (capacity 7,500), the team would be getting sized up for the Rex Ryan hot seat out of NYC.

According to the New York Times, in an article about Hillary Clinton’s latest book, Hard Choices:

“First-week sales typically account for about 30 percent of the total, thanks to the publicity blitzes that accompany publishers’ biggest releases.” 

In Cuomo’s defense, he hasn’t done much marketing for the book, but that might be his own fault.  In all likelihood, he’s turned down recent interview requests because he doesn’t want to answer questions about why he shut down the Moreland Commission that he established to investigate political corruption in the disgraceful cesspool that is New York State and City politics.

If one assumes the lack of a publicity blitz means that only 15% of sales were done in the first week, then Cuomo’s book could sell about 7,400 copies, which means the governor is getting paid almost $100 a book even though it’ll probably be found in the discount bin in a couple of weeks (now $18 at Amazon.com).