Prince Harry’s memoir, “Spare”, has become a
record-breaking success, with first-day sales that exceed some of publishing’s
biggest hits, including blockbusters by Barack and Michelle Obama.
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“Spare” sold more than 1.43 million copies in all formats
in the US, Canada, and Britain, including pre-orders, according to its
publisher. The figure marked the largest first-day sales for any nonfiction
book ever published by Penguin Random House, the world’s largest publisher.
The memoir’s strong debut, while extraordinary, was not
entirely surprising. An explosive tell-all by a self-exiled
prince seemed from
the start to be as close to a sure bet as one can get in the fickle publishing
business. Sales have been building for months, especially in the days before
publication, when the book’s contents started to become public in unintentional
leaks and in high-profile interviews.
“We sold books in every location — and we sold a lot of
them,” said Shannon DeVito, the director of books at Barnes & Noble. “Some
people came in right before work, some people came in on their lunch break,
some people came in after,” she continued. “But the velocity of sales
throughout the day was gigantic.”
An explosive tell-all by a self-exiled prince seemed from the start to be as close to a sure bet as one can get in the fickle publishing business.
The magnitude of its sales puts “Spare” among some of the
bestselling hardcover books in recent memory.
Barack Obama's “A Promised Land”
sold more than 887,000 copies across formats in the US and Canada on its first
day of publication, according to its publisher, Penguin Random House. Michelle
Obama’s memoir, “Becoming”, also published by Penguin Random House, sold more
than 725,000 units in the US and Canada on its first day, the company said.
Only publishers have access to the complete sales data
for their books, including the number of print, audio, and
e-book copies sold,
and they tend to release figures only when they are favorable. NPD BookScan
tracks print sales independently, and will report the first week of sales for
“Spare” on January 19.
In Britain, “Spare” set a record for first-day sales of a
nonfiction book, selling 400,000 copies, including pre-orders, according to the
publisher, Transworld Penguin Random House. Transworld has already ordered an
additional 200,000 copies of the book, according to Larry Finlay, its managing
director.
“The only books that have sold faster in a day have been
about the other Harry, Harry Potter,” Finlay said. “The public appetite is
enormous.”
Mixed reviews
The critical reception of “Spare” has been mixed, with
some reviewers praising the prose but questioning whether Harry went too far
into airing petty grievances. “The prince claims to have a spotty memory — ‘a
defense mechanism, most likely’ — but does not appear to have forgotten a
single line ever printed about him and his wife, and the last section of his
tell-all degenerates into a tiresome back-and-forth about who’s leaking what
and why,” New York Times critic Alexandra Jacobs wrote in her review.
Some critics in
Britain wrote about the book in baffled
tones, lobbing superlatives that were not always complimentary. A review in the
Guardian called it “a flawed attempt to reclaim the narrative” that is “by
turns sympathetic and absurd.” A critic writing for the BBC called it “the
weirdest book ever written by a royal” and said that it sometimes reads like
“the longest angry drunk text ever sent”. In the Independent, a reviewer said
the memoir was “richly detailed and at times beautifully written,” adding that
“if Harry is going to set fire to his family, he has at least done it with some
style.”
“The only books that have sold faster in a day have been about the other Harry, Harry Potter,” Finlay said. “The public appetite is enormous.”
By the time the book was released, many of its most
incendiary claims had already been picked apart in the press. The week before
publication, The Guardian ran an article that detailed a physical confrontation
between Prince William and Harry; as Harry describes it in the book, William
knocked him to the floor. That same week, copies of “Spare” accidentally went
on sale early in Spain and were snatched up by news outlets. Dozens of stories
followed from around the world: Harry said in the book that he killed 25 people
in
Afghanistan. Harry wrote that his brother encouraged him to dress as a Nazi
for a costume party. Harry lost his virginity to an older woman in a field
behind a bar.
An unexpected boostThe steady drip of revelations led some observers to
question whether the book itself would hold any new information. Rather than
dissuading buyers, the news media frenzy that followed each new release
appeared to help the book sell.
“We were like, is this going to damage sales, do people
think they’ve read the story?” Finlay, Transworld’s managing director, said.
“The headline-grabbing parts are interesting, but it’s not the most interesting
thing about the book. I think all it’s done is stoke the public interest.”
ReaderLink, a major book distributor, said pre-orders
jumped after the article in the Guardian detailing the scuffle between the
brothers. Waterstones, a bookstore chain in Britain, saw a surge of in-store
reservations after the article, according to James Daunt, who heads the
company.
The question becomes whether “Spare” continues to sell
briskly, or if interest will fade as the news media storm calms. Before the
book’s publication, some in the industry thought interest would peter out after
strong initial sales. But DeVito said Barnes & Noble expects the
book to be
one of the biggest releases of 2023. She added that the “expertise and talent”
of the book’s ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer, would help make the book’s appeal
lasting. (In the acknowledgments, Harry calls Moehringer his “collaborator and
friend, confessor and sometime sparring partner.”)
ReaderLink, which supplies books to major retailers like
Target and Walmart, said it had ordered about 300,000 copies of “Spare”. But
rather than shipping all the books out to ReaderLink at once, Penguin Random
House held some of them back so they could rush the books directly to stores in
case so much of the book leaked that the publishing date had to be moved up.
That threshold was never crossed, however, and the books
went on sale as planned, on Tuesday.
‘Cold feet’Even that was a victory of sorts for the publisher, which
had to contend with shifting publication dates as the
memoir was delayed —
Harry got cold feet about the process at times, said book industry executives
with knowledge of the process. In the acknowledgments, Harry thanked top
Penguin Random House executives for their patience and “understanding as
timelines changed, not once, but twice”.
Harry’s thorough account of his family’s endless drama
has also raised questions about what, if any, material of interest remains for
any future projects he and his wife, Meghan, might pursue.
By publishing a memoir, he was trying to put many of the rumors to rest by speaking up.
“Spare” was sold for a rumored sum of $20 million as part
of a multi-book deal, with flexibility as to the number and type of books
Harry and Meghan could produce, according to people with knowledge of the acquisition
process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because such negotiations are
private.
In a series of interviews to promote the memoir, Harry
was occasionally asked about the leaks that preceded its publication, and why,
if he so despised the media scrutiny that had caused such chaos in his life, he
was offering the public more information about his family. His answer was that
by publishing a memoir, he was trying to put many of the rumors to rest by
speaking up.
“The last few days have been hurtful and challenging,” he
said during an interview with Stephen Colbert. “Hopefully now that the book is
out, people will be able to see the context.”
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