In This Photo, He's Just Found the Bad Sex Passages

The other day, referencing Rachel Donadio's NYTBR piece on the reaction to I Am Charlotte Simmons from college kids, I asked semi-rhetorically: "How much more attention does the Times plan to give this guy?" The answer: plenty more. Edward Wyatt reads a worrying tale in the numbers:

"According to Nielsen BookScan, the media-tracking company, I Am Charlotte Simmons has sold fewer than 250,000 copies from its release in November through the end of January. Even after accounting for BookScan's acknowledgment that it typically measures about 70 percent of total hardcover sales, that would indicate that the book was selling at a slower pace than Mr. Wolfe's two previous novels."

Wolfe's publishers at FSG downplay talk of disappointment in his sales, indicating their belief in what Jonathan Galassi calls "a decline in the market for these big best-selling authors," which if it's true sounds either awfully foreboding or a good opportunity to clear out some of the deadwood.

photo: Karl Walter/Getty Images