Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/09/27/assange_notselling/

WikiLeaks memoir races to 537th on bestseller chart

644 copies of Assange bio fly off shelves in 3 days

By Andrew Orlowski

Posted in Legal, 27th September 2011 16:12 GMT

A moist Jemima Khan once described WikiLeaks' Líder Máximo as "the new Jason Bourne" – but Julian Assange just isn't selling like the Robert Ludlum hero.

Despite heavy publicity, Assange's "unauthorised biography" sold just 644 copies in three days. This placed the ghost-written memoir 537th on the best-seller list, the Bookseller reports.

What shabby indifference to the man who in his own estimation, single-handedly inspired the Arab Spring.

Canongate says the book is a "marathon not a sprint", and the publicity effort is only just getting into gear. Nevertheless, the public voted with its wallets by choosing to instead to put Pam Ayres in the Top 20, and not the enigmatic crypto fugitive.

Maybe WikiLeaks could learn something from that – and release future confidential material in rhyming verse, with a South West accent.

Assange is currently awaiting the verdict of an extradition hearing, and working with the Telegraph on more leaks. ®