Michael Eisner's 'Camp' Struggles
With just 5,431 copies sold in its first month of release, Michael Eisner's Camp, the longtime Disney CEO's heartfelt remembrances of three-legged races, leisurely canoe rides, and his serial victimization by swirly-obsessed bullies, isn't exactly burning up the summer bestseller lists. At least the soon-to-be-massively-remaindered author is looking on the semi-bright side. From the LAT:
"What I'm pretty sure is, it is not going to be a No. 1 bestseller for 26 weeks," [Eisner] said in an interview. "And I'm also pretty sure it's not a disaster. So it's somewhere in the middle."
"Camp" was the brainchild of Time Warner Book Group Chief Executive Laurence Kirshbaum. Eisner said Kirshbaum had assured him that it was doing well. But after 40 years in show business, Eisner said, he understands that the phrase "it's doing well" can be ambiguous.
"I've said that to a lot of people in my career," he said. "It could mean anything. It could mean, 'Jump out the window — you've sold three copies.' It could mean, 'Hey, it's really taking off.' "[...]
"It's definitely a hit in Vermont," Kirshbaum said. "Unfortunately, Vermont is not one of the major population centers of the United States."
If "it's doing well" is "jump out the window—you've sold three copies," then "It's definitely a hit in Vermont" translates to something like, "We didn't have the heart to tell you about the massive toilet paper shortage in the northeast."