In its first week on sale, Ms. Quinn’s 240-page memoir, “With Patience and Fortitude,” sold about 100 print copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, which measures book sales.

The anemic sales figures have left executives at HarperCollins, Ms. Quinn’s publisher, cringing at what is already known in the publishing house to be a big flop, even by the standards of a struggling book industry.

For Ms. Quinn, a Democrat who is running this year for mayor of New York, the lack of sales means a missed opportunity to employ a classic campaign tactic: introducing yourself to voters in a memoir, using carefully chosen words and photos.

Andy Dodds, a spokesman for William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, said in an e-mail, “No comment.”

It is no secret that New Yorkers have not all tuned into the heated mayoral race unfolding in their midst. But the sales figure is still striking in this book-adoring city, where Pulitzer Prize winners lurk in sidewalk cafes and Ms. Quinn is among the best-known candidates in the race for City Hall.

HarperCollins may have anticipated a lack of interest: it has shipped only 5,000 copies of the book to Amazon and other retailers after initially announcing a first print run of 75,000.

The book, released on June 11, is a slim hardcover that offers personal revelations about Ms. Quinn’s struggles with bulimia and alcoholism, along with dozens of pages about the details of her wedding last year to Kim M. Catullo. It includes little insight, however, into Ms. Quinn’s political life, barely mentioning her vote that allowed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to pursue a third term, and it omits the slush fund scandal that Ms. Quinn faced as City Council speaker.

Before its publication, the memoir was seized upon by the rival campaign of Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democrat, who described it as a way for Ms. Quinn to skirt campaign finance rules and receive free publicity.

But even in Ms. Quinn’s own neighborhood, Chelsea, the book is difficult to find. Posman Books, a shop in Chelsea Market, did not have any copies in stock on Tuesday evening. An employee said four copies had been ordered and were on the way. At McNally Jackson, a bookstore in SoHo, three copies were in the store, but none had been sold as of Tuesday, a bookseller, Matthew Wagstaffe, said.

A spokeswoman for Ms. Quinn, Mike Morey, said on Wednesday that she had no expectation for the book’s sales. “She wrote the book because an opportunity presented itself, and she felt like she might be able to send a message to anyone struggling out there that things do get better,” Mr. Morey wrote in an e-mail.

Ms. Quinn has run a relatively subdued publicity campaign for the memoir, appearing on a small number of cable news programs and granting an interview to Marie Claire. An excerpt from the book was published in last month’s issue of Vogue.

There was at least one early sign the memoir was headed toward a short shelf life. A copy was seen for sale on a sidewalk table on Seventh Avenue South in early June, a week before it was to be available in stores. The price was $15, a 40 percent discount and cheaper than the current price on Amazon.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/nyregion/quinns-memoir-goes-largely-unsold-when-it-can-be-found.html?partner=rss&emc=rss