‘Skirt’ too small for the hype

Literary darling Jon-Jon Goulian made headlines when he snagged a reported $700,000 advance from Random House for his first book, “The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt,” which described him growing up as a hyper-neurotic misfit in California. The fanfare continued with splashy profiles in the New York Times, Vogue and Rolling Stone. “Is there anybody more likable than Jon-Jon Goulian?” asked the New York Observer. But it appears few outside theParis Review set are as fascinated. Notably absent from best-seller lists when it was released in May, the book has sold 957 copies in its first month, according to sources with access to Nielsen BookScan, which monitors 50 to 75 percent of total sales. Insiders say Random House would have to move about 200,000 copies to see a profit. The hardcover was ranked at a lowly No. 116,210 on Amazon yesterday. “This was definitely a pre-crash deal,” said an insider of the whopping advance. Random House declined to comment.