Penguin Random House imprint Crown will no longer promote New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s book about the Covid pandemic and has no plans to reprint it or print a paperback edition, the New York Times reports.
The move by the publisher comes after a controversy over Cuomo’s handling of coronavirus deaths in the state’s nursing homes. In January, a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James found that the state’s health department misstated the number of nursing home residents who had died of Covid during the pandemic.
Cuomo’s book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the Covid-19 Pandemic, was published in October. News of Cuomo’s book deal was greeted with skepticism from some observers who thought it was odd the governor would publish a book about the pandemic while his state was still in the midst of it.
Cuomo is also dealing with another scandal—in the past few weeks, six women have accused him of sexual harassment. The twin scandals have threatened to end his political career, with several New York Democrats calling on him to resign.
On Monday, Vanity Fair reported, citing unnamed sources, that Cuomo had received a multimillion dollar advance for the book. But sales for the book have been anemic compared to the size of the deal—as of the end of February, the book had sold just over 45,000 copies.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
