For the haters, there’s still outright desperation to cling to any bad news about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, specifically about Prince Harry’s Spare. In its first week of sales, Spare sold over 3.2 million in only English-language copies, from hardcover to digital to audio. Spare broke all kinds of records. So what is happening after the initial promotional blitz and first-week record-breaking sales? Spare is still selling really well. According to those haters, the drop-off in sales has been “steep” because “the public has turned against Prince Harry.” I suppose people believe that if they don’t know the first thing about how big-name memoirs sell? Spare is still #1 on the NYT Bestseller (non-fiction) list. It’s still #1 on Publisher’s Weekly too. Publisher’s Weekly says that in the US, Spare sold 195,000 copies in its second week. The UK sales are even more notable:
Prince Harry’s Spare (Bantam) plummeted in sales in its second week on the shelves, falling 82% in volume week on week from its towering launch-week sales. However, at 82,538 copies sold, it was still far and away the Official UK Top 50 number one, with more than 70,000 copies between it and second-placed Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Slow Cooker Book (Ebury).
Of course, with Spare selling just under half a million copies in its first week, a swift drop was expected. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Bloomsbury), the fastest-selling book in history, shaved off over 1.2 million units in its second week on sale in summer 2007. Similarly, the fastest-selling Adult Fiction book of all time, Spare’s Transworld stablemate The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, dropped 68% in its second week on sale in 2009, shedding in excess of 375,000 copies. The effect will be even more pronounced with Spare—not only did the national news speak of little else during its launch week, but the pre-order market has sharpened considerably since the Noughties, boosting first-week sales even further.
At a whisker under 550,000 copies sold in total in the week and a half since publication it’ll be an uphill climb for any title hoping to leapfrog Spare to become the bestselling title of the year.
So, for the English-language version, the business model was a big promotional blitz with huge presales and first-week sales, then slow-burning word-of-mouth sales after the first week. Not to mention that this is all gravy – Penguin Random House already made back their investment in Harry in the first week.
Carla Bruni (the former First Lady of France) is a huge fan as well. I would love to see numbers on the non-English sales of Spare. I have a feeling that Spare is selling really well across Europe and South America. Maybe Asia too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Cover Images.
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- A general view of Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ on sale at Waterstones bookshop at Piccadilly, London, England, UK on Tuesday 10 January, 2023. The retailer opened its doors early at 8am for customers to purchase the book.,Image: 748668805, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- A stock image of Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ in front of Buckingham Palace, London, England, UK on Tuesday 10 January, 2023, which went on sale today.,Image: 748708660, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry’s memoir “Spare” goes on sale at midnight at WH Smith bookstore in Victoria Station, London. Pictured: General view BACKGRID USA 10 JANUARY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Los Angeles, CA – Prince Harry’s memoir was released Tuesday, not only offering new details on the British royal family’s bitter internal feud after days of bombshell revelations and promotional interviews but also describing how he fell headlong in love with his future wife, Meghan Markle. While many of the details from the book, titled “Spare,” have already been reported, its release at midnight Monday local time (7 p.m. ET) will allow the public to get their hands on a copy of a memoir filled with glimpses into a rarified family riven by disagreement and distrust. The title of the Dutch version is called Reserve. Pictured: Prince Harry’s memoir BACKGRID USA 10 JANUARY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Prince Harry’s Book ‘Spare’ Released In The UK Following months of speculation the Duke of Sussex’s long-awaited personal and emotional tell-all book, entitled Spare, goes on sale today in 16 different languages, plus an audiobook read by the prince himself, published by Penguin Random House. Featuring: General View (Prince Harry’s Book ‘Spare’ Released In The UK) Where: Harleston, Norfolk, United Kingdom When: 10 Jan 2023 Credit: Nils Jorgensen/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images
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- Prince Harry’s Book ‘Spare’ Released In The UK Following months of speculation the Duke of Sussex’s long-awaited personal and emotional tell-all book, entitled Spare, goes on sale today in 16 different languages, plus an audiobook read by the prince himself, published by Penguin Random House. Featuring: General View (Prince Harry’s Book ‘Spare’ Released In The UK) Where: Harleston, Norfolk, United Kingdom When: 10 Jan 2023 Credit: Nils Jorgensen/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images
I need to buy this too!! I’ll bump the sales in UK for the 3rd week 😉
What a great comment by Carla Bruni. I feel the same way.
Didn’t she post a racist trope of Meghan a month ago and quickly took it down?
She sure did change her tune, after thrashing Meghan when the book was released. Most likely people remind that her husband spent a year in jail, and she was a Mike Jagger groupie.
More like a change of heart from Carla. She posted a photoshopped picture of Harry and Meghan with replaced by Yoko Ono last week.
@ Amy Bee, you are much too forgiving and optimistic with regards to Bruni than I am. I think she showed her true colors with that disgusting photoshop that she posted. Plus Bruni has a history of being not to kind to people.
She posted a horrible racist post with the face of Yoko. She’s nasty. Carla is a nobody racist. End of. I know my comments about her aren’t getting posted but I’ll keep them up, she’s horrible.
No one in their right mind gives Bruni a pass.. She’s a nasty racist, especially with the Yoko thing. I’m so shocked she’s given props
I love how the British Press/Royal Mouthpieces are doing all sorts of verbal twisting to try to make the sales seem like a failure. If William sold the exact same number then they would tout it as a historic success but since it is the enemy it has to be a failure.
That Showbiz411 guy is such a hater, he did the same thing around Archetypes. Sales for everything go down after the initial release unless they run out of copies (Thinking Jordan releases). It’s not like a movie where you can go to see it multiple times, unless you want to get it in multiple formats, a book is something that you aren’t buying every week. It’s wild to me how much these people want Harry and Meghan to fail. They aren’t satisfied with just ignoring them, they need them destitute. It really speaks to the hatred in their hearts. I don’t understand how they don’t think it’s something really troubling about themselves.
Color me surprised that there is another hater with regards to Harry and Meghan….
What is their goal? To get in good with the aristocracy of Britain, or the BRF??
Finished it up yesterday and really enjoyed it. I did feel he went pretty easy on his father especially during his childhood and some parts felt a little rushed especially at the end, but nicely done.
They took 400 hundred pages out.
Wait didn’t Carla Bruni just recently post a picture of Meghan and Harry with Yoko Ono’s face photoshopped onto Meghan? Then she deleted after backlash. I’m surprised to see her say something positive about Spare.
I’m not, these people always have grace for Harry and none for Meghan. If Harry today said he was leaving Meghan and moving back to the UK, all these columnist and social media people that hate his guts would be compiling lists later today about “appropriate” women for him to date. They’re racist.
Carla wanted attention and she got it, just not the kind she wanted.
It’s Meghan they/derangers have issue with, not Harry. Notice it was Meghan’s image photoshopped as Yoko. She is fully supportive of the white prince.
To be on the best seller list you have to sell 5000-10000 copies per week. So….yeah Harry is killing it!
The sales have gone from record breaking to very good, most authors would be delighted with this level of sales. I am sure Harry and his publishers are very happy.
@ Emily, I am just giddy that Harry’s book is doing so well and shattering sales worldwide!! Harry has now cemented himself as a best selling author/writer and any projects of a second book, whether it be non fiction or fiction, will create a bidding war.
Harry has again proven that people are still interested in hearing what he has to say. And lest we not forget the breaking records that he and Meghan smashed with Netflix as well. People will be lining up to sign them up for their contributions at a greater pace and level than before.
As for the haters, they can all go suck on it!!
I’m just enjoying the British press’ reaction to Harry’s book becoming a best seller. They still don’t want to accept that it is.
There were so many articles about how the publishers paid such a high advance and wouldn’t even make their money back. Um pretty sure they’ve already made their money back and then some.
I remember reading he would have to sell 1.7 million copies for the publishers to break even. He did that in the first day! Good for Harry. Hope the book continues to give him royalties for years to come.
It’s almost as if the majority of people posting racist, hateful stuff about H&M are paid bots…
Honestly, I hope most of the vitriol is from bots. I’d hate to think that so much calumny and filth is being spewed by actual humans. This human adored Spare!
@ booboocita, I too hope it’s bots as that level of hate and the disparage that is flung at Harry is upsetting. How can we as a society eliminate these vicious lies all due to some people who are actively trying to ruin someone’s life? All Harry wanted was to be happy and to protect his wife and children. Thankfully he has done that but I don’t see the haters scattering off into the darkness any time soon.
I have already listened to it on Audible (I listened to part 3 twice), I bought the kindle version, and I got the hard cover this weekend. What….too much?
I saw the comments of the derangers on social media and literally thought that they were letting the world know how clueless they are. Geez people, do the math. Their comments are truly about themselves and not H&M. People see you!!!!!