We’re only a few weeks away from the publication of Prince Harry’s Spare memoir. I’m excited, although I’m trying to temper my expectations. Like, I genuinely don’t think that this will be Harry naming names and talking sh-t about his family. I believe Spare will be more in the vein of the Netflix series, maybe with some notable conversations about mental health, like he discussed in The Me You Can’t See. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe it will be Harry’s Revenge: Talking Sh-t and Naming Names. Whatever happens in Spare, we’ll all be experiencing it together – the publisher is not serializing the book to any newspapers:
There are no plans for a newspaper serialisation of Spare, Prince Harry's memoir, his publisher Transworld has confirmed. The book will be published on 10th January.
Read here: https://t.co/e5pO8Jxpes pic.twitter.com/xxhGQlv8hD
— The Bookseller (@thebookseller) December 22, 2022
I suspect that serialization was never on the table, despite the inane predictions of the royal rota. I thought that it was possible that People Magazine or Vanity Fair might get to publish a chapter in advance, which… hey, it might still happen, but I doubt it. It’s likely that the Sussexes and the businesses they work with understand the power of dropping these projects fully formed, without a huge hype campaign. The Sussexes are like Beyonce in that way, lol.
Plus, I think Harry and the publisher have a very clear game plan – it’s likely that Harry’s interviews with Anderson Cooper and Tom Bradby will land like huge bombs going off in the UK, so it’s unnecessary to hype the book by serializing it. Like, the Daily Mail and all the British papers will have wall-to-wall coverage of every single thing Harry says in his interviews and the Windsors’ “dignified” freakout about those interviews.
Photos courtesy of Netflix, ‘Spare’ cover and Daily Mail cover.
Is serializing a thing in the US publishing industry, anyway? I’m always surprised at some of these royal books published in the UK and how much gets printed before the book is actually published. Its a bit of giving the milk away for free IMO. I know sometimes here a brief excerpt will get published but not like what seems to happen in the UK with the big royal books (those are the ones that I follow in terms of publication etc.)
Anyway I can’t wait for Spare. I pre-ordered it from Amazon but now I wonder if I should also get it from my local bookshop bc then I could pick it up first thing in the morning, rather than waiting for Amazon to deliver. I also got it on my kindle. And Audible but that’s bc my husband has too many audible credits lol.
I was coming in to say the same thing. Serializing seems like UK promo tactic. And most likely just for royal books and because the whole royal Rota system probably obligated them to do it.
It happens occasionally in the US — the Washington Post might run three days of excerpts from the new Bob Woodward book or the Times might (and did) a couple of days of Maggie Haberman — but what’s more common is a deal with an outlet (The Atlantic, Slate, the Daily Beast) for a single chapter ahead of release and the review embargoes.
Ah yes you’re right I do remember it for some of the big releases of the Trump era. And even then I think its dumb bc I stopped buying the books bc all the good stuff was released ahead of time lol.
I agree, the serialization I have seen of the royal books is giving so much content of the books. But maybe because these are royal biographers they really need to drum up interest. I don’t think this applies to high profile people, I don’t think the likes of Obama get their books serialized either.
They do it for books written by people who don’t have a global profile. Harry does. They also didn’t do this for Michelle Obama’s book or Barack Obama’s book. And no fiction book does this either. This is only for mostly unknown journalists.
It’s amazing how stupid the rota can be. They are no names and the serialization needs to happen because people wouldn’t care about the book unless they know there is dirt in it.
Harry’s book will be a global hit based on his name alone. He could have crayon pictures in it and it will still break records.
That’s what bothers the rota the most.
Not really? Often times an author will have an excerpt of a book up on their personal website so people can read the first chapter or the first few pages (or read the free excerpt on Amazon). But authors don’t typically publish passages from upcoming books. The ONLY book I can remember this happening to was The Circle by David Eggers and I can’t remember in what publication I read it. However I ended up buying and reading the book because I was intrigued by the passage I read in the magazine I read it in (pretty sure it was a magazine) and I ended up hating the book lol. I’m sure other books have been serialized too but I can’t remember others.
I also can’t wait! Like you, Becks1, I ordered the hard copy, Kindle version, and Audible version. I like the way you think! Figured I’d dive into the Kindle version right away.
LOL! I love it! The British media won’t be able to spin and twist sentences and paragraphs to suit their negative narratives. They’ll actually have to ‘read’ the entire book for click bait.
Political biographies tend to get serialised as well, although it’s becoming less of a thing than it used to be as newspaper sales decline.
Lol…Good and now all the experts and rota find out when everyone else does. I know they hate the day those two left because them having control over their life and image is upsetting a lot of people. Harry and Meghan truly flipped the script and have the power and that’s honestly amazing. If you want to read the book, you have to pay for it and no amount of bad press is going to change that.
Pre-ordered it on Audible and just saw that the narrator is Harry! Makes it even better.
I just re-activated my audible account and it hadn’t occurred to me that I can use my next credit for this! I have a hard copy on order from my local bookshop but with Harry narrating I think I’ll get this as well. Narrators make such a difference to an audiobook and I think he’ll be great.
Completely agree on the narrator. Can make or break the book. I think Harry will be a great narrator, too.
V happy that the UK papers won’t be making money off any excerpts from the book. And I’ve always felt that this book will have a lot of Harry’s early memories and childhood so a lot about Diana. The way he felt after in his teenage years and his time in the military and possibly what it was like trying to form the IG outside of the institution. After the Netflix series, I’m wondering how much he’ll retread that time pd. with Meghan. Maybe he will or maybe it’ll be a to be continued type situation.
@JAIS i think youre spot on. Harry’s ghostwriter JR Moehringer is a well respected writer known for writing compelling stories around how childhoods can make a man and how about boys who don’t grow up close with their fathers can look for father figures and community elsewhere.
The memoir he wrote about his own life, The Tender Bar, was made into a movie directed by George Clooney and starring Ben Affleck. It wouldn’t surprise me if Clooney turned Harry on to that book and that was one of the reasons he was chosen because Andre Agassi also chose him to be his ghostwriter for his critically acclaimed memoir Open after reading the Tender Bar and from the press release from the publisher on Spare it seems to be in a similar vein.
Agassi’s memoir Open is the best memoir I’ve ever read. In the book, Agassi includes the story of how he read Moehringer’s book and knew that was the only author he would want to work with to tell his story. Open is a truly great read. I’m expecting Spare to be excellent.
I don’t know how much Diana we’ll get from Harry’s childhood. He said in the documentary that he doesn’t remember a lot, has possibly blocked some memories of his mother because it was painful. But maybe a good ghostwriter can help lead him through some, almost like a therapist.
@CourtneyB, Harry may not remember much about his mother but he has said he talked to a number of her friends, and may discuss his perspective on what they told him.
Harry is not going to name names but I think the press and the Palace are still going to be upset about what he does says. I’m not surprised that there won’t be any serialization. That would mean the press profiting from it and I’m sure Harry doesn’t want that. Plus the British press freak out about the book has already helped with the promo.
First of all, Harry can only legally speak to his personal experience. So, if it didn’t happen to him directly, he’s not going to write about it.
What I think WILL come through loud and clear is the NEGLECT he experienced from the family. Especially from Charles. He will say just enough where people can easily fill in the blanks. I think it will also put to rest the joined at the hip/thick as thieves with Will and Kate narrative. William pretty muched ditched Harry at Eaton and their lives were in completely different directions after they left.
And I hope we also get some lovely anecdotes about Diana.
Harry has personally witnessed a lot so there is a great deal he can say that wouldn’t be great for them.
Even though I don’t think he will talk about William’s marriage, he could easily say “ and I don’t like that my wife was used as cover to not publish stories about my brother” and boom there is another crack in William’s facade.
I’m certain the book is already a best seller on Amazon, the pre-orders would do it I think.
I will say all the excerpts from Matthew Perrys book caused me to cancel my pre-order.
So much came out, I felt no need to buy it.
Is he wearing his dress uniform (wedding pic uniform) in that one? Cuddling the dog. 👍
It strikes me how comfy/homey their house is vs. the pomp and gilded interiors of BRF. Much better.
H&M must be emotionally exhausted from everything. I would be.
^^ In the picture of Harry cuddling beagle, Guy, that has to be at Nottingham Cottage. Guy clearly has the wraps around his front legs. They were still at Nottingham when Guy was recovering from his leg injuries.
For sure Meg made a comfy home out of Nottingham Cottage. One of her friends said that in the People article, describing her visit to see Meg when M&H were still at NC. Meg had a lovely home in her Toronto flat too. And from the interiors we see of Frogmore Cottage, and their amazing Montecito villa, Meg has a knack for creating comfortable living spaces.
In the Netflix documentary, Meg spoke about how much she enjoys cooking for her family. We’ve always known about Harry’s desire to have a family. Now, after seeing Meg say in the doc that she was often lonely growing up as the only child of divorced parents, we know that she too longed to have a family. She even said that’s what she enjoyed most about acting on set — the camaraderie and close-knit sense of family.
Meghan is smart to cook for her own family. You can have a lot more privacy that way. You can involve Harry, the children, in a basic human activity. You can always have parties catered or send out for things. I think she makes the children’s birthday cakes.
It is sweet to see Doria involved in the raising of the kids. They will always remember that. Wish Diana could’ve lived that long. I think she would have been happy, eventually, with a second life away from the royals.
This is a good move by H. There will be no opportunity for the BM to muddy the waters with their disgusting bile so more people with come on board with H&M.
I thought the Netflix series was missing Charles & Camilla. I hope he reserves us all the surprise in there for Charles and Camilla.
Agree that he doesn’t need the bump that might come with serializing: he’s much better off doing interviews. The other consideration is that if a chapter or excerpt were released ahead of time, it would be fodder for the rota to try to discredit the whole book or take parts out of context.
We just saw that the palaces’ coordinated response to the Netflix documentary was to claim ( through their pet outlets) that they were never contacted for comment, and even though that was demonstrably untrue, that narrative was powerful and probably most people did not see the correction. Just imagine the poison they could pen if they had got a screener ahead of time!
Either Fail or Times usually buy up serialization rights to books on RF and there is no way H is going to allow them to get any advance notification of the contents!!
I love them not serializing it, smart move. Now it means the British press can’t make money off of it. 😂
My only expectation from Prince Harry’s memoir (SPARE) if the ghostwriter is J.R. Moehringer as was reported, is that SPARE is as good as J.R. Moehringer’s previous work ‘Open’.
Cutting off BM, RR’s money grab from serializing the book before the general public reads the book is a boss move…kudos to the publisher.
I think serialization is used to generate buzz and interest and perhaps cultivate new readers. Harry’s book needs none of these. I think the British public is used to having books about the royal family serialized. A lot of them would not sell many copies otherwise.
Good. Releasing major portions means less people buy the book. I want allllll the haters to support their independence.
I believe the proceeds for the book will go mostly to Sentebale. This was stated when it was first reported that Harry was writing a memoir. Perhaps a small percentage of profits go to Harry? I’m not sure how this was set up exactly. In any case, the publisher has already recouped their investment, and then some! 👏😃
Let’s be real though, between all the media coverage and the stratospheric advance sales, they don’t need a serialization media blitz.
I hope the book reveals dirt on the rota. They deserve all that, a lump of coal in their stockings, and more.
I checked my Amazon order details and it says Spare is released Jan 10 and will arrive Jan 10, so maybe the preorders get mailed out early? Fingers crossed
I requested the book as a Christmas gift. I’m so looking forward to it and I hope he doesn’t protect William. He doesn’t have to trash the man but simply not protecting him anymore could be very insightful. Poor Harry, with a father and brother turning on him, god I’m so glad he’s prioritizing himself
Harry looks awful and nearly cross-eyed in those glasses. Someone needs to take him shopping.
It’s a still from the Netflix series.
Personally, I think Harry looks adorable and sexy as hell in his glasses.
Harry has close-set eyes (see his book cover). I like the glasses!
I thought serialization/excerpts were the norm. With Mathew Perry’s book a lot was released before the book came out. I always think too much is released so it doesn’t seem worth buying. I also don’t think there’s going to be a huge media blitz. Harry and Meghan only do a couple of interviews when they promote a project.
This book needs no promotion. Serializing isn’t a common practice in the US. I would imagine that serialization helps drum up interest in most books. But SPARE will sell itself. I pre-ordered the book weeks ago and just bought the kindle version. In time, I’ll also get the audiobook. SPARE is going to be a top seller for weeks, if not months.
Serialization/excerpts are for lesser books.
It’s odd that there werent private pix of Harry and Diana in this doc. I suppose the same will happens with his book