Amy Schumer Book Bust: Sales of ‘The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo’ Disappoint

Is Amy Schumer’s new book a bust at the bookstore? The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo has premiered to less than stellar sales.

According to the New York Post‘s Page Six, Amy Schumer’s book only sold a measly 36,000 hardcover copies in its first week of release. This is considered quite a small sum; even though, Schumer’s book has been listed number one on the top ten list in its first two weeks of release.

When taking all platforms into account, such as E books, the Schumer book has sold more than 170,000 copies so far.

Its publisher is trying to put a positive spin on things, though. As well it should since Amy Schumer was paid a whopping $9 million advance for The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo.

Well some people may be asking what the big deal here is anyway. So what if Amy Schumer’s book bombed? Plenty of comics get paid a lot more than $9 million to write and star in their own comedies which bomb at the box office.

So why are readers shunning the Schumer book? It certainly is not due to bad reviews.

Rolling Stone said that, “Schumer chronicles her life with digestible stories that impart powerful messages through a kind of logic of the opposite: she makes mistakes so that we can learn from them.”

So Amy Schumer does have important and insightful things to say to the public in the book.

Entertainment Weekly said of it, “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is laugh-out-loud funny when Schumer wants it to be.” So it is a funny read. But EW also pointed out that Schumer’s book is profound saying that, “on the whole, this book is far less a portable joke factory than it is a real, deep dive into Schumer’s life, and what it’s like to be an imperfect woman and content and proud of yourself despite that.”

So could the failure of Amy’s book to sell well be due to a general fatigue with the constant barrage of formulaic semi-autobiographical books by comics like Schumer who just regurgitate their standup routines on paper?

Well not according to the Chicago Tribune whose critic wrote that The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, “is a better, more deeply felt life-so-far book than most I’ve read. Schumer weaves a brave, vulnerable tale without falling into the usual celebrity traps of neediness and defense.”

And plenty of Amy’s fellow comics like Aziz Ansari and co-stars like Tilda Swinton have taken to Twitter to sing the praises of Schumer’s book.

The hilarious and kind @amyschumer wrote a book – The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo – get it here: https://t.co/3cJb9nkNkh

— Aziz Ansari (@azizansari) August 15, 2016

So maybe it is because Amy Schumer has been a bit overexposed in the media lately that people are unwilling to read The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo.

In the last few weeks we have heard all about how Amy Schumer may or may not have decided to end her successful Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer. This was said to have been in some way related to the sexual harassment/assault allegations and other revelations regarding one of the Schumer show’s writers, Kurt Metzger.

Amy Schumer certainly did not help herself with comments on Twitter in which she seemed to not be too bothered by the situation saying, “I am so saddened and disappointed in Kurt Metzger. He is my friend and a great writer and I couldn’t be more against his recent actions.” And making it more about Schumer adding, “Kurt does not work for me. He is not a writer on my show. Please stop asking me about it. His words are not mine.”

And Schumer further complicated things just the other day by telling Lena Durham in an interview,” why are these women treating him [Metzger] like he raped someone? He’s not Bill Cosby; Kurt has never raped.”

Many women rights activists were not pleased with Amy Schumer for those comments.

We have also been told by the comic all about how Amy was once raped in a soul baring interview with Howard Stern. And Schumer has dished about having her own sex tape.

Then just the other day the world was blown away by film of Amy Schumer smacking down a rowdy heckler during a performance in Sweden. Who would have thought that the Swedes could be so rude?

Or maybe this is just a bad time in general for the book industry. As stated above, Amy Schumer’s book is still number one in sales in spite of its poor performance.

How about the price? On Amazon even the E book for Kindle of The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is listed at $14.99.

Perhaps the book is suffering due to Amy Schumer devoting so much time promoting her new comedy tour of North America. Or maybe sales will pick up as the tour progresses.

Well whatever the reason, or combination of reasons may be for the New Amy Schumer Book’s failing to catch fire the comic’s fans have little to worry about. Amy Schumer will certainly be writing plenty more books and making more movies in the years to come.

[Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for People.com]