My understanding is that such biographies are often a way of money laundering donations. “Do us a favour, and we’ll make sure that after your retirement your autobiography nets you $xx in royalties. If it doesn’t sell, we’ll get one of our affiliated organizations to buy a bunch of them to make up the difference.”
If that’s close-enough-to-true, and this guy’s biography isn’t selling, it means he no longer has the backing of orgs that push this scheme. The dull sales figures don’t just mean the book us useless - many bestselling biographies are useless. It means he’s lacking friends with power.
