NYC mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn’s memoir so far sells just 100 copies

Holly Bailey
·National Correspondent

Christine Quinn is vying to be New York City’s first female and first openly gay mayor, but even as polls suggest she still remains the candidate to beat, it appears Quinn will not add the title of “best-selling author” to her resume.

The New York Times reports that Quinn’s memoir, “With Patience and Fortitude,” sold just 100 print copies during its week of release, according to Nielsen BookScan. That’s an embarrassing stat for Quinn’s campaign, which had hoped to use the book to boost her bid to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg when he leaves City Hall later this year.

The number is somewhat surprising when you consider that Quinn is among the best-known candidates in the race. But while she remains atop the polls, a recent Marist College poll suggested she’s lost some ground to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who jumped into the Democratic primary last month.

Spokesmen for Quinn and for her book publisher, HarperCollins, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Even though she's the only mayoral hopeful in the race to have written a book, the sales numbers are sure to fuel speculation about Quinn’s viability as a candidate—especially as Weiner and other rivals have stepped up their attacks on her campaign. Among other things, they’ve criticized her close ties to Bloomberg, whom she helped to win a third term at City Hall in spite of term limits.

Bloomberg, however, hasn’t done much to help Quinn’s mayoral bid. Last fall, the outgoing mayor reportedly encouraged former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run for mayor—partly out of the belief that his successor needs to be someone with star power.

While Nielsen offered no stats for online book sales of Quinn's book, The New York Times reported that print editions of the memoir have been particularly hard to find in New York City bookstores. The paper reported that HarperCollins lowered its initial print run of the book from an estimated 75,000 to just 5,000 before its release.

The mayoral primary is Sept. 10.