Jayson Blair, Update Your Resumé

I guess there's hope for the American reading public after all. Whiny, self-serving, disgraced-journalists-turned-memoirists need not apply.

Jayson Blair Book Flops
By Hillel Italie

March 18, 2004 | NEW YORK (AP) -- Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass, two young journalists notorious for fabricating stories, have something else in common: Both have written highly publicized books that few people are buying.

Blair, a former New York Times reporter, received a six-figure advance for "Burning Down My Master's House." Published March 6, the book had an announced first printing of 250,000 and plenty of media coverage, including author interviews with Katie Couric on NBC and Larry King on CNN.

But in its first nine days of publication, the book only sold about 1,400 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan. Figures from Nielsen usually represent about 70 percent of total sales.

"Jayson Blair's book is currently not selling particularly well, but frankly I don't think that comes as much of a surprise, given the amount of ink already spilled on this topic," Daniel Blackman, vice president and general manager of Barnes & Noble.com, said. "Keep in mind that the audience for this book, are for the most part, the very same readers who've already consumed the extensive Times coverage in the aftermath of the scandal. I think they already know all they need to on the subject."