If you’re looking for proof that Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis’ fifteen minutes of fame have passed, look no further than her dismal book sales.
Davis’ new book, titled “Forgetting to be Afraid,” has sold only 4,371 copies since its release on Sept. 9, according to Nielsen BookScan figures obtained by Slate.
The Nielsen figures don’t account for digital sales.
Davis’ terrible numbers come after she and her book received so much fawning coverage from a friendly press. The book itself has received plenty of free publicity, including in a recent appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
Sales of Davis’ book are more depressing when you compare her sales over the last six weeks to first-week sales of memoirs penned by other political notables. For instance, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sold approximately 469,000 copies of her memoir, “Going Rogue,” in just the first week, according to Nielsen BookScan.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sold 85,000 copies of “Hard Choices” in the first week of its publication, while former Republican president candidate Herman Cain sold approximately 12,000 copes of his book, “This Is Herman Cain!” in the first week of its release, according to Nielsen.
Davis, who first attained fame through a filibuster supporting late-term abortion, is currently running for governor of Texas, and so it isn’t as though she were coasting off the fumes of being a political has-been.
It wasn’t long ago that the press declared Davis the next big political star, going so far as to say that her celebrity status had the power to turn Texas Blue.
