Prince Harry’s controversial memoir “Spare” has seen record-breaking sales.
The book has already sold 1.43 million copies in all formats — including hardcover, ebook and audiobook — in the U.S., Britain and Canada, according to its publisher, reports The New York Times. “Spare” had the most first-day sales of any nonfiction book published by Penguin Random House, which is the world’s largest publisher.
First-day sales of “Spare” smashed the previous records held by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. In 2020, Barack Obama’s memoir “A Promised Land” sold almost 890,000 copies, while Michelle Obama’s 2018 memoir “Becoming” sold roughly 725,000 copies during its first day of sales, reports The Hill.
“We sold books in every location — and we sold a lot of them,” said Shannon DeVito, the director of books at Barnes & Noble, per The New York Times. “Some people came in right before work, some people came in on their lunch break, some people came in after. But the velocity of sales throughout the day was gigantic.”
According to Random House, the publisher initially printed 2 million copies of the book, but the book has already “gone back to press for additional copies to meet demand,” per CNN.
Prince Harry put everything on the record in “Spare” — including details about his relationship with Prince William and how he did his own laundry, as reported by the Deseret News.