"Does scandal sell" Not for attention whore Olivia Nuzzi's book so far.

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

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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.”

Comments:

cnn-user-4l1vlo
12 hours ago

Probably everyone’s hoping the book will flop and she’ll go away and leave 
us in peace.

cnn-user-mx5sqf
13 hours ago

Part of her problem is she looks like Max Headroom in drag, at least in 
the article's photo.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/03/us/olivia-nuzzi-american-canto-release-cec