UK: Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare has broken records upon its January 10 release, even beating Barack Obama’s book to become Penguin Random House’s fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time. As per The New York Times, the Duke of Sussex’s incendiary tell-all became the publisher’s highest-selling non-fiction book on the first day of its release, with 1.4 million first-day and pre-order sales in the US, UK, and Canada; the book moved 400,000 copies in the UK alone.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Gina Centrello, the president of Random House Group, said: “Looking at these extraordinary first-day sales, readers clearly agree, Spare is a book that demands to be read, and it is a book we are proud to publish.”
In contrast, former US President Barack Obama’s 2020 title A Promised Land recorded 887,000 first-day sales in the US and Canada, and his wife Michelle Obama’s popular memoir Becoming took a week to sell 1.4 million copies.The success of Prince Harry’s book is especially noteworthy given that it was leaked days before its release, and even accidentally went on sale in Spain five days prior to release.
The figure includes all formats and editions, including e-books and print copies. According to publisher Penguin Random House, the book has smashed all records for any first-day nonfiction book sale it had ever put out, The Bookseller, the publishing industry trade journal reported. The book was released on January 10 simultaneously across the world in 16 languages.The sales figures are all the more impressive given that most of the revelations within the book including a physical fight with elder brother Prince William, Harry’s loss of virginity and details of his cocaine and magic mushroom-taking made headlines across the world.
“The first full day of sales of ‘Spare’ represents the largest first-day sales total for any non-fiction book ever published by Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher,” according to ‘People’ magazine.
- THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
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