Invest in yourself! Newsom just spent millions buying his own memoir. This is not illegal - it’s the same as donating to your own campaign.

Photo above - Does using the American flag as a backdrop boost book sales? I might want to try this myself . . .

The New York Time is outraged – outraged, I tell you – to find Gavin Newsom’s “Young Man in a Hurry” is not really a best seller after all. Two-thirds of the first printing were bought in bulk by Gavin and his minions, presumably to be signed and given away at a later date. (See link below). Gavin's memoir was formerly touted as THE best-selling book of 2026 (non-fiction).

Let’s curb our outrage, shall we? This is millions, not billions. Amazon offers both hardcopy (list $30) and softcopy versions of “Young Man at a Hurry” at various discounted prices. Gavin’s ghost-written autobiography gets 4.6 stars from readers/buyers, but it’s now unclear how many of those ratings came from Gavin and his staff. In any case, hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold in just the 2 months since it was released. YMIAH was ghost written by “Mark Arax”, a contributing New York Times reporter with no Wikipedia page, so maybe Mark is the guy who outed Gavin’s game to the NYT?

Back to Governor Newsom. His net worth is around $30 million, so spending 10% (+/-) of that to buy copies of his own book is ambitious, but not illegal. It’s also not illegal to have a ghostwriter script campaign speeches, or pen homilies for a podcast like “This is Gavin Newsom”. It’s unclear if Gavin pays out of pocket to have his podcast distributed or is monetizing it in some way. It’s all perfectly legal, and I don’t care. Gavin should be getting kudos for wagering 10% of his money on himself and career. This is like a Kalshi - a prediction market. Aspiring politicians do this kind of stuff all time – either spending their own cash or borrowing outlandish sums in the expectation that future campaign contributions will make them whole. Examples include Trump, Obama, the Clintons, John McCain, Jimmy Carter . . .

So please – let’s move beyond this penny-ante $1.6 million shell game Gavin and his publishers are pulling with his dethroned best seller. People should actually read Young Man in a Hurry instead. Here’s a poignant quote, for example:

“One of the struggles of my life is that my brain has trouble processing words on a page… “

I was gob-smacked when I read this. It could have come directly from one of Joe Biden's or Donald Trump’s ghost-written books. Thanks for the heads up, Gavin. Reading is an essential skill I expect from my elected officials.

I’m just sayin’ . . .



google - Gavin Newsom hit with humiliating New York Times bestseller asterisk

google - Governor Gavin Newsom’s Memoir “Young Man in a Hurry” Tops Bestseller List with Nearly 100,000 Copies Sold - NewsBreak