​​Does scandal sell? Not for Olivia Nuzzi’s book so far

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN

New York (CNN) — The news that Olivia Nuzzi had a book coming out was, in political and journalistic circles, the sensation of the fall season.

In October of 2024, Nuzzi had lost her post at New York Magazine, where she’d been a star profiler of politicians, when it turned out she had been having an affair (passionate, but purportedly never physically consummated) with one of her profile subjects: the independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Afterward, Kennedy went on to become the secretary of Health and Human Services for Donald Trump, while Nuzzi went into what journalistic cliche and short attention spans decided to call “exile.”

Eleven months later, she was back: announced by Vanity Fair as the magazine’s new West Coast editor. Less than a month after that, she was in The New York Times, on the receiving end of a celebrity profile, complete with romantic, black-and-white visuals of her driving through California in a convertible, blonde hair blowing in the wind — and with the word that she had turned her career-upending romance into a memoir, “American Canto,” coming soon.

Then came an excerpt of the book in Vanity Fair, followed by a furious serialized barrage of Substack blogging from her scorned ex-fiancé and fellow political reporter, Ryan Lizza, accusing her of even more journalistic and sexual transgressions, all of which was met with the anticipation and discourse once reserved for Sunday night prestige cable programming. (Lizza was previously an on-air contributor to CNN.)

On Tuesday, the book arrived in stores. At lunchtime, in the Midtown Manhattan nexus of media and publishing, interest in Nuzzi’s story seemed more muted. The Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue had seven copies tucked into a “New & Notable” rack next to the escalator, below Malala Yousafzai’s “Finding My Way.” Not many had sold so far, a store employee said.

A few blocks uptown, at a branch of the local independent chain McNally Jackson Books, a few volumes lay on a table of new and noteworthy nonfiction near the front of the store. No one was lining up to get them, or even browsing. Bookseller Alex Howe told CNN around 3 p.m. that though the store had procured “several dozen” copies, not a single one had yet sold — a figure he said was surprising, considering how many people in media and publishing work in the area.

“We ordered a lot and so far, people have not been beating down the door,” Howe said. “I’m not sure where we’re gonna put them because right now, supply is outpacing demand.” (A manager at McNally Jackson noted that Howe was speaking only in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the store.)

Political memoirs have seen mixed success at the bookstore this year. While Kamala Harris’ “107 Days” was displayed on a shelf with other bestsellers, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s “Unfettered” had been a “flop,” per store staff.

In fairness, it was a slow day. The release of “American Canto” coincided with a major winter storm in the Northeast, which was forecast to bring heavy snow and sleet at midday, though all Manhattan saw was cold rain. Still, it may have prompted otherwise eager readers to stay home.

Online sales haven’t been particularly frenzied either, though. By Wednesday morning, the hardcover edition of “American Canto” ranked No. 6,709 on Amazon’s bestseller list, and commentators on social media deemed early numbers disappointing. After a brief Tuesday morning appearance at No. 1 in Amazon’s narrowcast “Journalist Biographies” category, it slipped to No. 3 the following day, behind Cameron Crowe’s “The Uncool: A Memoir” and Margaret Atwood’s “Book of Lives.”

As of this writing, there were 33 people total waiting for the four electronic copies in circulation at the Brooklyn Public Library. As with Lizza’s paywalled installments of his side of the story, which circulated widely via pdf and email among journalists reluctant to invest subscription money in the scandal, there appeared to be a gap between how ready people were to read the story and how ready they were to pay to read it.

Despite the apparent lack of shopper interest, the Nuzzi saga was an animating subject for McNally staff, who were discussing her new release among themselves before this reporter approached them. One employee mentioned she had been heavily invested in the drama, dissecting the turn of events with everyone from her friends to her uncle.

Howe said he had also followed Nuzzi’s writing and reporting over the years and likened his fascination with the latest salacious scandal involving RFK Jr. to “a car crash on the highway where I feel curious and also bad for them.” Though he said he probably won’t read “American Canto,” he wished her well.

“If it turns out to be something that didn’t work out, she at least tried something that’s really hard for any author, regardless of whether you’re a reporter or whatever else,” he said, adding, “It can be hard to compete with the likes of Britney Spears and Emily Henry for attention and sales.”

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