Before Prince Harry’s Spare was released, I read a financial analysis of what it would take for Penguin Random House to “make money” from the memoir, considering that the publisher reportedly paid Harry $20 million upfront. The analysis was like “Spare would have to sell in the vicinity of 1.5 million just to ‘break even’ with Harry’s upfront.” Spare sold that many units in its first day. So how did it sell in its first week? Amazing:
Prince Harry’s “Spare” sold more than 3.2 million copies worldwide after just one week of publication and will likely rank among the bestselling memoirs of all time.
Penguin Random House announced Thursday that Prince Harry’s headline-making memoir sold 1.6 million copies in the U.S. alone. It’s a number comparable to first week sales for blockbusters such as former President Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” and former first lady Michelle Obama’s “Becoming,” which has sold more than 17 million copies since coming out in 2018.
The British publisher announced last week that “Spare” sold 400,000 copies in the United Kingdom in all formats — hardback, e-book and audio — on its first day.
The total sales announced for “Spare” are for print, audio and digital editions in the major English-language markets: the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. The book has come out in 15 other languages, and editions in 10 additional languages are expected.
“Spare” may set records for…
