Is Hillary Clinton’s New Book A Dud?

Is the Hillary Clinton memoir Hard Choices a dud despite all the hoopla?

Simon & Schuster paid the former first lady, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State a $14 million advance, but will the publisher ever get its money’s worth? An insider reportedly says no way.

The book is currently number one on Amazon out of the gate, however.

The lukewarm content of the book has been panned even in liberal precincts, and her book tour has been deemed a disaster by many across the spectrum, in part because of gaffes such as outlandishly claiming that she and former president Bill Clinton were “dead broke” when they left the White House, thereby coming across like an out-of-touch elitist.

Whether the book is a flop or not, in a somewhat contentious radio interview in connection with the book tour, an NPR host pressed Clinton on whether she flip-flopped on supporting gay marriage.

According to what a source inside the publishing industry told the Weekly Standard, the public is not finding it a hard choice to resist buying Hard Choices. The insider described the book as “a bomb.”

Said the source about the Clinton book which reportedly had an initial print run of one million copies: “Between us, they are nervous at S&S [Simon & Schuster]. Sales were well below expectations and the media was a disaster. 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.’ 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.”

Many stodgy and bland political books on the right, left, and center wind up on the remainder table; Clinton’s book wouldn’t be the first by any means.

It’s conceivable that a liberal political action committee or some such true-believer group could make a bulk purchase, thereby artificially boosting sales.

According to HotAir.com, the underlying issue goes beyond the book, which apparently was the rollout of a Democrat presidential campaign or an attempt at one. “The real sales job wasn’t the book itself but Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate. The lack of enthusiasm for the book in its sales figures hurts the perception of Hillary, but nowhere nearly as badly as Hillary herself has damaged it over the past eight days. She has made gaffe after gaffe, underscored her lack of accomplishment at State, and provided no real answers on how she would govern. Indeed, her book and her testimony on the tour the past week has raised a lot more questions about her leadership and her honesty than it answered. So the book sales may be a flop, but the bigger flop is Candidate Hillary. Even a boost in book sales wouldn’t fix that.”

Do you plan to read Hillary Clinton’s book Hard Choices?

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