Is Rhee's Book a Flop?

I know nothing about the book publishing business, so maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a book like Michelle Rhee's Radical needs months to build up buzz and become a best-seller. Maybe her autobiography is a sleeper and will catch fire after a few more weeks.

But right now, Radical looks like a flop.

According to Amazon.com, Radical was released on February 5, 2013, almost three weeks ago. In that time, Rhee has been on what must be any author's dream book tour: The Daily Show, This Week, Charlie Rose, and many other outlets. She's been treated very gently, despite the cheating scandal that surrounds her and her mediocre record running Washington, D. C.'s schools. Given the extent of her book tour and it's fawning nature, you would think that Radical would be flying off of the shelves.

And yet Rhee's book has not cracked the New York Times Best Sellers List. And Amazon, as of today, puts Radical here:

Radical isn't even the number one book under "Educator Biographies and Memoirs." How many books can possibly be in that category?

Tonight, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis, stars of the reformy film Won't Back Down, will be at home washing their hair, rather than anxiously waiting while the envelopes are opened at the Oscars. Their film, in spite of all of the hype, was an enormous failure, having one of the worst openings in Hollywood history. Apparently, "reform" propaganda doesn't sell very well.

Are we seeing the same thing with Radical? Has the American public figured out that Rhee and her ilk are simply not to be believed?

We'll see.

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