Bill de Blasio’s campaign web site shows his policy book was downloaded 204 times in the first 12 hours since it was released, Azi Paybarah reports. In comparison, Christine Quinn’s 240-page memoir, “With Patience and Fortitude,” has sold only about 100 print copies in its first week on sale, according to Nielsen BookScan, which measures book sales.

According to the Times, “A copy was spotted for sale on a sidewalk table on Seventh Avenue South in early June, a week before it was supposed to be available in stores. The price was $15, a 40 percent discount and cheaper than the current price on Amazon.”

Paybarah notes: “Strictly speaking, Quinn’s memoir costs $16, and de Blasio’s policy book is free. Then again, Quinn’s book has had more exposure. Part of her story was previewed in a lengthy Times story, the book was excerpted in Vogue, and then it was written about, again, in the Times.”

A spokeswoman for Ms. Quinn, Mike Morey, told the NY Times 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.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)