It appears readers were not rushing to buy a copy of Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) new memoir “Unfettered” — not even in his home state.
Mediaite, citing a book review, reported no copies of the book was sold at his hometown’s Barnes & Noble store the first few days after the book’s launch.
Fetterman and his ghostwriter reportedly received more than a million dollars in advance money from publisher Crown. Despite the investment, “Unfettered” has not gained traction in both online and retail stores.
“The day after Fetterman’s book dropped, I called a handful of Barnes and Nobles [sic] and independent bookstores in Pennsylvania,” Defector Media’s Alex Shultz reported. “The Barnes and Noble in York — where Fetterman was born and raised — had sold zero copies. The Barnes and Noble in Philadelphia had sold two copies.”
Two independent stores told Schultz they were not stocking the book; another store reported interest in the book had been “lukewarm.”
“In fairness, things can of course change. But the early signs are not good,” Schulz said. “A few days after “Unfettered” came out, it was ranked No. 82,145 among all books on Amazon. As of Monday, Nov. 17 (not quite a week since the book’s release), it’s No. 15,713.”
The book is currently listed as the number one bestselling Amazon book under the category “United States Local Government.” it is narrowly beating Pete Buttigieg’s memoir “Shortest Way Home,” which was released in 2019.
“There is no audience for “Unfettered,” and I do not think Crown will get its money’s worth on this memoir,” Shultz wrote.
He described the book as a “boring” and full of “what the country already knows,” with antidotes about when Fetterman peed his pants as a child and was told he was too tall to go trick-or-treating.
On X, Shultz posted Fetterman’s book had sold less than 2,600 copies in its first week altogether.
“That ranks No. 19 in the adult autobiographies category, two spots behind Chris Matthews’ RFK hagiography. Not what you want, numbers-wise,” he wrote.
