Guardian: A Montecito bookstore has only sold 30 copies of Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’!

Over and over again, the British papers have sent “reporters” to Montecito to try to find people to talk sh-t about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Very few Montecito residents have taken the bait. I would imagine that it’s a cushy assignment for those British reporters though, and their reports are often kind of wistful, like “wow, Montecito is really nice, I kind of understand why Harry moved here.” But of course they can’t just say that – they can never admit that Harry has a much better life now, that he’s happier than he’s ever been since moving to California and that he had every reason to leave the UK. So, I was surprised to see the Guardian get into the “reporting from Montecito” beat, but here we are. They tried very hard to make it sound like the Sussexes’ Montecito neighbors hate them.

The evacuation order: On the day Prince Harry’s controversial, headline-grabbing memoir Spare officially became the fastest-selling non-fiction book in history, the bookstore in his adoptive hometown in California did not move a single copy. Indifference wasn’t the problem…the much bigger issue was the weather. The previous afternoon, a massive storm had dumped a foot of rain on California, the beginning of a week of dramatic “atmospheric rivers” and flooding across the state, and everyone was ordered to leave. “I got a call from a reporter in England,” the owner of Montecito’s Tecolote bookshop, Mary Sheldon, recalled. “He asked me how many books we’d sold, and I said, ‘None – zero. We’re under evacuation.’”

The local bookstore sold 30 copies: More than a week later, the rain has stopped, the risk of mudslides has abated, but sales are still far from robust. Sheldon said she’d sold about 30 copies, with a few more reserved for customers who’d promised to fetch them in person. Even in a town that refuses to fuss over its many celebrity residents, the lack of buzz over a book that is flying off the shelves and dominating conversation just about everywhere else on the planet is remarkable.

Living under the radar: “It’s a perfect place to live under the radar,” said Kelly Mahan Herrick, a real estate agent specialising in luxury properties. Press the locals about Harry and Meghan and they will respond with platitudes, if they respond at all. “They’re mostly out walking their dog,” was as much as one neighbour would offer and still did not want to be identified by name. “They’re very quiet, lovely people.”

Harry the normal bloke: Scratch the surface a little and you might find out a little more. Locals say that Meghan has been spotted shopping at the Wendy Foster boutique, and the couple recently spent a night with friends at the Santa Barbara Bowl, an outdoor amphitheatre, to see Jack Johnson. More commonly, Harry is spotted on his own or with a bodyguard, riding his bike to the beach, or playing polo at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, or hiking one of the many mountain trails above the town. The president of the Montecito Trails Foundation, Ashlee Mayfield, said one of her board members bumped into Harry in the mountains recently and the prince helped him move a tree that had fallen on to the trail. “I think he really wants to be a normal guy in town,” Mayfield said.

One British expat: The one person willing to discuss the book in detail was a British expatriate, Richard Mineards, who writes a gossip column for a local newspaper. His take after reading Spare from cover to cover? “I think the whole thing is reprehensible,” he said, sounding a lot like the British tabloid newspapers he used to work for. “It is doing enormous harm not only to the royal family but to his own family, he and his wife… If he really does want to reconcile with his family in due course, why does he keep throwing bombs at them? Where do they go from here?”

[From The Guardian]

“Where do they go from here?” The beach. Then they’ll grab lunch at a cafe. Then they’ll head back to their beautiful mansion with their lovely children. I think that British expat is probably the sole source for all of those dumb reports about how “the Sussexes’ neighbors hate them!” As for the Montecito book sales – British journalists’ magical thinking is that everyone buys hard copy books at a bookstore, when really… y’all know most people are ordering their books online and downloading the audio. Still, 30 copies sold in a week at one local Montecito bookstore is actually really great? Anyway, I love that Harry and Meghan just exist and thrive and have privacy. Even the Guardian is mad about it.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

105 Responses to “Guardian: A Montecito bookstore has only sold 30 copies of Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’!”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Moderatelywealthy says:

    This takes the cake as the most unnecessary article on the whole ” We dont like Harry and Meghan, thank you very much” series.

    • ELX says:

      These people…how are the strikes going? How about the corruption of the Tory party? Food bank usage? How many Brits are freezing in their homes? What about the raw sewage in the rivers? This is like the 10-minute hate in 1984–anything not to deal with Britain’s real, massive problems. It’s bizarre and sick.

      • Debbie says:

        You have the perfect take on the British media’s obsession with the Sussexes. Totally ignoring their own ills to focus solely on the town of Monticeto, California. Sad. These people have all the worst traits of a fixated ex-boyfriend, 1) Stalking to the point where they’d pay to send someone to another country to investigate your new life, 2) Then, complaining about said new life, and imply that it’s not so great, 3) Finally, imply that if you keep living your new life, how on earth are you ever going to return to them and reconcile. Just fixated.

    • Mary Pester says:

      And they have printed this rubbish in the daily fail today!

  2. C-Shell says:

    In a town with ~4000 residents? Thirty hard copies from one bookstore in one week? That’s GREAT! This is a big fat, hateful, red herring.

    ETA — thanks @JazzHands for the accurate per capita info!

    • Ginger says:

      Seriously. Selling 30 copies from a small bookstore is huge. As much as the British press don’t want to admit it, Harry’s book is huge and is changing the narrative.

      The British press are desperate for ANYONE in Montecito to bad talk Harry and Meghan. A hack from The Sun went there last year and had to admit that the town is very protective of them and that they live in a beautiful area.

      • Marilee says:

        Speaking of changing the narrative, my mom knew very little about the Harry and his family relationship other than it was strained. Since listening to Spare, she’s become very protective of H&M and cannot believe how bad his family treated them. When she finished the book she was genuinely sad that she would no longer be hearing his voice.

      • Mary Pester says:

        Yep and more to the point as well, this town was evacuated, flooded, had storm damage to clear up and STILL sold 30 copies. I would love to know how many people they talked to before they managed to find one, just one person (who might not even be a full time resident), willing to critisise a book 😂😂and as for the UK. I’m sat here in the UK thinking, WHY is the guardian trying so hard on this, why is it not concentrating on our food bank disgrace, our strikes, we are nearly at a complete standstill in everything, firebrigades, ambulance staff, paramedics, junior doctors, train drivers, train guards, postal workers, but THEY chose to send someone to the US. But, if I tell you that the editor of the guardian is a friend of Camilla and Charles, – because he is, then you have your answer!!

    • Jais says:

      Especially considering the town was under evacuation. And they are seriously ignoring the big ebook elephant in the room. Once I started reading on my kindle, I never went back. I love having real books around the house but being able to change the font size, avoid glare, and have a built in flashlight? Forget about it. I swear I don’t own stocks or anything but I just really love my kindle.

      • Yvette says:

        @Jais … I feel you! I went from hardcopy books to my ‘bright white’ Kindle to audiobooks, and I can’t seem to go back, either. I always buy the Kindle copy and then the audiobook (the audiobook is cheaper on Amazon if you buy the Kindle copy first) so I’m covered either way. I listen to the audiobook during the day on the bus ride to work and walks, trips to the store, and such, but I read my Kindle in bed at night. And yes, being able to change the font size at my age is amazing!

      • Blithe says:

        Yup! Plus I’m sure that at least a few people pre-ordered their copies from Amazon — just like the rest of us, which makes those sales numbers from the local bookstore even more impressive.

      • Chaine says:

        For sure, in the ten years or so that I’ve owned a kindle, the only hard copy books I’ve acquired have been books other people gifted me. It’s also made me more likely to buy ebooks than use the library, since once you factor in the traffic and the gas prices and the overall hassle of getting to the library, it’s a lot more economical to just buy a kindle book in many instances. Yes, my library has an ebook option, but it is not kindle and you have to wait forever for your turn.

      • Liz Version 700o says:

        Same! I adore my Kindle and never buy hard copies anymore! My copy on my Kindle was pre-ordered 🙂

    • Emily says:

      Exactly. I saw a tweet where someone did the math. In Montecito, 30 books is 1/250 people, and in the US 1.4 million books is like 1/500, so the sales are actually higher in his community.

      • Saucy&Sassy says:

        Emily, it’s actually 1.6 million books sold across all formats in the US in the first week.

        In the UK there were 750,000 books sold across all formats in the first week. That works out to 1 book for every 92 people. In the UK.

    • susan says:

      Not to mention that many, many people would have ordered it online in advance, either the hardcover, or the kindle/audio version, just sayin

      • Debbie says:

        As long as we’re “just sayin” how much would you bet that the British press also under reported the number of hardcover sales they’re reporting about? Just as they’re endlessly exaggerating the Cambridges’ accomplishments, I’m equally certain that they reduced the number of sales of Spare for their reporting.

      • BothSidesNow says:

        @ Debbie, now you are talking. Of course the Brits will downplay the number of books sold but you can’t erase the pictures of those who stood in line on the morning of the books release in Britain. I estimate hundreds of people were in line that morning.

        Now I can no longer support The Guardian. I thought that they were reputable but I guess not.

    • Nicki says:

      Yes, that stupid story is willful ignorance. For an indie bookstore, selling 30 copies in one week is huge. And they did it during a climate disaster. Anyway, these stories can’t change the truth. Harry‘’s book is a blockbuster. And the paperback is still to come. Lol

    • DK says:

      Can you imagine living in a small community like Montecito, full of famous people, and actually buying a memoir or book about any one of them *at the local bookstore*?!?! Like, where everyone can see you buying a book full of gossip on your neighbor!?

      I have no doubt every single Montecito resident has a copy, purchased online to be discreetly delivered to their door, or directly to their Kindle.

      [Or, since it’s a memoir written by Harry & his ghost writer, for all we know, he had a book signing at his house and all the neighbors came and bought copies there. I mean, we have no idea, and neither does that “journalist.”]

      But this is in no way a dig at H&M by their neighbors – it’s more likely a sign of respect.

      (Obviously I hope they go buy other books at their local bookstore to make up for it, but really. How awkward would it be to buy it in town?!)

      I’m so sad the Guardian fell prey to this BS “reporting” tactic & non-story though. What a massive disappointment.

      • Becks1 says:

        omg. What if meghan was there as you were buying the book, or Harry himself?!?!?! lololol

      • Lorelei says:

        @DK, MTE! I was actually surprised that 30 people went into the store (although I’m glad people are supporting their local bookstore). Most people I know order books from Amazon without a second thought.

      • BothSidesNow says:

        @ Lorelei, I actually do buy my books from a small bookstore, and not Amazon. I use Abe Books in the Midwest. The staff is magnificent and I was able to score two signed copies of “The 1619 Project” from them. Super great staff too!

      • Agreatreckoning says:

        I love going to my local bookstore. I preordered Spare from there. It helps that I’m often given gift cards from there for Christmas-plus the owner is involved with supporting other local business owners like we do. The bookstore is near a coffee, bagel and flower shop. Smells I love. Love the smell of new books too. (have bought books through amazon though)

        You also don’t know who you might run into (sometimes good, sometimes not so good). My favorite experience: I was within 15 feet of Jimmy Buffett at a bookstore one time years ago. Everyone was respectful. You could feel the energy. I have no doubt being in a bookstore with Harry would set the shelves on fire. (which makes Maureen Eden’s other story about someone saying something about Harry not doing a book launch had something to do with worrying about people not showing up-as if effing if).lol for days

        Going on another tangent. Meeting different authors. Went to a book appearance/signing by Nick Petrie. Maybe not a recognizable name. His books are centered around a war veteran that suffers from PTSD and is a bit of an Equalizer. Nick Petrie, in person, is charismatic, articulate and not unfortunate to look at. It was really fun eavesdropping on some of the ladies. Anyhoo, maybe it’s just me, but Petrie looks like he could be Harry’s brother more than TOB. (if you’re a fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, you might like Petrie’s series. Lee Child’s himself gave a thumbs up to Petrie) sharing this for the photo. The podcast is worth a listen.
        https://www.wuwm.com/podcast/lake-effect-segments/2019-01-11/author-nick-petrie-tears-it-down-in-fourth-book

  3. L84Tea says:

    Whoa baby, the desperation is real!

    • TOM says:

      British journos, spend a week here. Ride an e-bike to the beach. Have fries in your burrito. Maybe a Hawaiian shave ice, too? Watch the hummingbirds on the bird-of-paradise flowers. It’s all good.

      The danger is you, too, may want to rethink how you’re living your life.

      • Saucy&Sassy says:

        Tom, can you imagine what they must think when they return to the UK? It might have something to do with the anger in their articles.

  4. Jazz Hands says:

    This tweet came up in my feed, showing that sales per capita in Montecito are almost double that of the entire US.
    https://mobile.twitter.com/edwinhayward/status/1617547074584678404

  5. Amy Bee says:

    The British press’ obsession with Harry and Meghan is scary.

  6. Izzy says:

    Mineards used to work for the Mirror and the Daily Fail, so that tells you everything you need to know about him.

    • Brassy Rebel says:

      He used to be a regular on American tabloid TV shows I think. Not surprising he moved to California and writes a gossip column for a local paper.

  7. Snuffles says:

    Ignoring the intentionally misleading, clickbait headline, what I’m getting is that Harry and Meghan are blending in just fine to the local community and their neighbors like them. Also, it’s a great place to have a peaceful, private existence.

    • Lorelei says:

      Yeah, it’s extremely telling that the only person with anything negative to say about them is a British gossip columnist! 🤣

  8. equality says:

    Interesting how they always find one crusty old guy to say how “reprehensible” the book and PH saying anything is but never anybody to say how “reprehensible” the behavior of the tabloids and RF was in the incidents that he writes about. The racist, misogynist actions by the BM and RF is apparently fine; only speaking about it is awful?

  9. SAS says:

    I LOL’d big time at “Harry is most often alone or with a bodyguard”. Like belly laughed. They want so badly for M&H’s isolation to continue so it wasn’t just a reflection of their sad UK life.

    And wasn’t the Jack Johnson concert like a year ago? I swear we saw pics. They have nothingggg leaking and it’s so obvious.

    • Jais says:

      Yep, and the pics of Meghan at the Wendy foster shop are old too. They did not get that info from actual residents.

  10. Cindyloowho says:

    I really don’t understand The Guardian’s stance on Harry and Meghan. They are supposed to be a real newspaper and yet they are consistently negative on them. What’s the deal there?

    • Jais says:

      The plague at the heart of the BM infects everything. The guardian can have some pretty good articles about Harry and Meghan and then the next day another article full of snark and snobby tabloid lines.

      • kirk says:

        Guardian needs to attract advertising and contribution $$ to stay alive resulting somewhat in forked tongue.

        Byline for article, Nicholas Schou, reveals him to be former OC Weekly editor. Since Orange County is a few miles down the coast from SB area, Schou appears to have turned to “crusty old guy” – “British expatriate, Richard Mineards, who writes a gossip column for a local newspaper.”

        The Montecito Journal, for whom Mineards writes, has the mission: “To build community through inspired content.” Insofar as Mineards seems to be violating the masthead’s mission by dissing local residents, they may be open to switching him out.

    • Polo says:

      This is the British medias version of balanced but really the guardian is just as establishment as the rest of them.

      • Brassy Rebel says:

        They’re becoming more gossipy all the time. They can’t beat the tabs so they’re joining them.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        The Guardian/Observer is small “r” republican and anti-monarchy newspaper. They are fairly nasty to all the British Royals but The Guardian/Observer stories are not made-up BS like The Fail, The Scum and The Slow.

    • ABritGuest says:

      A lot of the British press coverage of Harry and Meghan is pointed because they’ve called out the powerful press barons & the tabloids for the trash they are & successfully sued a bunch of them. Plus Harry is suing over phone hacking & wants real press reform which they don’t want which is why the guardian didn’t back leveson suggested reforms when the phone hacking scandal broke.

      No industry circles the wagons like journalism & guardian journalists like marina Hyde are ex tabloid (she was at the Sun having an affair with piers Morgan) so they probably don’t love attacks on their former & possible future colleagues. They all ultimately end up working for the same papers despite their professed politics.

      I also think as Harry said, the British press thinks the royal family trauma is for them alone to exploit. They are upset with Harry & Meghan telling their own story & with alternative US media platforms like Netflix. If Harry had used a uk journalist like Bradby to write his memoir like Charles did with his authorised biography by Jonathan Dimbleby & if he had done first big exit interview with Bradby on itv instead of Oprah on cbs – the British press wouldn’t be as salty.

      Finally the Guardian’s role is to prop up the establishment from the left & the monarchy is at the heart of the British establishment. The Guardian just plays at being a republican paper. A real republican paper would have been hammering the BRF over Andrew claims alone. I bet they barely covered Charles’ cash for honours story. If there was a real chance of getting rid of the monarchy, the Guardian would be the first with articles about the positives of constitutional monarchy.

  11. SarahCS says:

    Where do they go from here?

    How about home to their beautiful mansion to hang out with their happy kids?

    Shame on you Guardian. Finding one British ex-tabloid reporter to bitch about them is not the gotcha you seem to think it is.

  12. Normades says:

    Haha I loved the the ´they’re lovely people just minding their own damn business and walking their dog’.

    But seriously after the horrendous conditions 30 hardback copies of one book for store is fine.

    • SAS says:

      Great point! Aside from the small population, those numbers are with reduced trading from freakin natural disasters! The attempted gotcha just gets more hilarious.

  13. ceej says:

    I am simply shook – shook – that a British expat gossip columnist is willing to say catty things about the Sussexes. I would never have expected it. How can I believe anything in life again. 🙄

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      It truly is shocking to hear a Brit, that was a royal correspondent for the the Mirror & the Fail, talking badly about the Sussexes. It’s even more shocking when you know the Brit moved to New York in 1978 and became the gossip columnist for Murdoch’s Star tabloid. Further shocker! When Murdoch bought New York magazine, Mineards became one of the editors of it’s gossip column. I’m shook too. Whodhvthunk?

      LOL. It seems like the article is implying there is one bookstore in Montecito. A quick search brings up others. Hmmm..maybe their sales were better. It doesn’t read like the bookstore featured in the article is being negative to Harry’s book.

      It really would be a shame if the Tecolote Book Shop received an increase in sales after this article. Doesn’t look like they have any copies sitting on the shelves at this time. They could have it shipped to you in 1-5 days though.
      https://www.tecolotebookshop.com/search/site/Spare just saying

  14. Chloe says:

    Throw the whole british media away. All of it

    • Doppelgangers R'Us says:

      We could add half to 3/4s of the rest of media with them, and the world would be a better place. It seems as if citizen journalists are some of the only ones digging up the truth, because corporate journos tow the mainstream propaganda line.

  15. heygingersnaps says:

    the guardian likes to pretend that it’s different from the other british media establishment/tabloids but it really is not. They like to get those hate click money as well. They will keep away from big energy companies for sponsorships/adverts but they have no problem platforming and stoking hate. Not to mention they continue to give a platform to a problematic person who’s had calls for being a grifter/poverty scammer. I have stopped my subscription to them since last year.

    • SomeChick says:

      who is the poverty grifter? I think the guardian is way better than most of the brit media, but have definitely been disappointed by some of their Sussex coverage.

      • heygingersnaps says:

        She’s /they’ve been cosplaying as part of the working class and have just released a recent cookbook that rhymes with “grifty” kitchen that was pulled by the publisher due to a lot of bad advice on it that can cause harm (think using hammers and such to open a tin if you don’t have a can opener or something like that), not to mention her unappetising recipes.

    • kirk says:

      If you follow Jazz Hands #4 twitter link above, Edwin Hayward calls it, “Just another headline pulled from the Daily Mail’s fundament.” Incisive. British tabloid taint permeates.

      • heygingersnaps says:

        Yeah, that’s the thing, the guardian want to set themselves apart from the media establishment but at the end of the days stories like this and it’s not a one off just shows them to be no different to the rest of the british media. I have already blocked several “news” sources on Apple News and there are so few that I will give my attention to now.

    • HappyFeet says:

      When you say grifter/poverty scammer do you mean Jack Monroe, author of A Girl Called Jack, left winger activist, and long time campaigner on poverty and cost of living issues? The person behind this website https://cookingonabootstrap.com/ An honest and decent person. I think that the only people who could possibly share that opinion with you would be the most rabid and fanatically right wing readers of the Daily Mail…

  16. BlueSky says:

    Can someone get this reporter a back scratcher because they are reaching! You are spending money on hotels, cars, flights to send a reporter to this place just to be told “um they are nice people”
    I don’t think they understand that a-lot of people in that neighborhood value their privacy and the privacy of their neighbors and that they can’t be bought.

    • SomeChick says:

      it’s probably a local freelancer/socal beat reporter based near there.
      but still. this entire aticle is a bad take.

  17. Doomed says:

    And people think the guardian is anti monarchy. Nope they all parrot the same lines.
    Just like Meghan said they need to fill a spot for royal news. No one else is interesting or gets them clicks so they fly to California to come up with something.

    The best way to see an end to this madness is stop engaging with these people.

    If a tweet or article about Meghan gets 10,000 clicks and hundreds of comments etc and everything else gets zero engagement guess what they are gonna write about? Meghan…

    That’s why outrage tweeting/sharing of negative/hateful articles from the British media does nothing because they don’t care. They are engaging the haters and supporters so that means more clicks.
    As long as you are sharing their propaganda they are happy.

  18. Tessa says:

    It is still a best seller. And people can order books online

  19. Becks1 says:

    This is such a pathetic article that I almost have pity for the person who wrote it and for the guardian who published it (I said “almost” lol.) They are literally stalking them in Montecito, asking anyone around for any information about them, and they could only find one person – ONE – who was willing to badmouth them, and he’s a former british tabloid reporter.

    They just come across as so very very sad.

  20. lemontwist says:

    “ ‘Where do they go from here?’ The beach. ”

    LOL. Perfect, elegant truth. This should be the answer to that bitter, salty question from here on out.

  21. Leah says:

    I grew up shopping on the “main street” in Montecito and still stop there often to go to Starbucks as I’m driving through. I was not even aware there was a bookstore in Montecito. It feels like there are fewer than twenty shops in the whole town. It’s mostly a few gift shops, a few restaurants and lots of realtors. What a ridiculous story.

  22. Laura D says:

    As a paying subscriber of The Guardian I let them know what I thought of the article and told them their time would be better spent investigating how much value we’re getting per engagement for the royals we’re paying for. I also told them that if they carried on with these Mail type articles I would cancel my subscription. I really don’t understand why they’ve gone down this route. Grrr

  23. Feebee says:

    This is such a non-story it’s ridiculous. Though the physical book per capita sales is interesting. I would have thought neighbors would get the more discrete audio or ebook versions anyway.

    It’s the last bit that caught me. British ex-pat. He’s an immigrant to America but see we white folk don’t go by “immigrant”, no, that’s for the others. We’re “ex-pats”. Imagine if all the (example only) Caribbean immigrant community in the UK demanded to be referring to as ex-pats. The papers and the many of the public would choke.

    • BeanieBean says:

      Feebee: that is an interesting point you make & one I hadn’t realized: immigrant = dark-skinned/bad; ex-pat = light-skinned/good. I’ll pay more attention to what I read & the terminology I use myself.

  24. Denise says:

    I had Guardian on my donation list until now but they have been removed. I thought at least they won’t succumb to tabloid narratives. Extremely disappointing

  25. Lucy2 says:

    This is hilarious and pathetic (the Guardian article).

  26. SourcesclosetoKate says:

    YouTube needs to be cleaned up by someone, I can’t look up one thing about Meghan or Harry without being bombarded by hate posts. I wonder about kids researching them, it’s awful.

    • Ang says:

      What about gossip sites that appear in search engines that openly engage in and encourage hate posts about Kate and her children? I wonder about kids researching them, it’s awful.

      • SourcesclosetoKate says:

        No. Sorry I never come across Kate hate on YouTube ever

      • SourcesclosetoKate says:

        Sorry I never came across Kate hate on youtube ever. You’d have to search high and low

      • Becks1 says:

        I”m sure there are hate sites and hate videos out there on Kate, but I never see them. The most I see are ones pointing out the hypocrisy in terms of how Kate is covered vs Meghan. The algorithms keep pushing Meghan hate material into my IG and FB reels though which I don’t understand bc I don’t watch it, I think they just know I follow royal gossip so assume I would be interested in anti-Meghan videos.

        I have never gotten an anti-Kate video pushed into my feed.

      • Saucy&Sassy says:

        Ang, perhaps you can give us an example? I’ve never seen such a video either.

  27. Tansy says:

    Slow news day? Literally who cares how many copies of Spare have been sold? What difference does it make either way, truly?

  28. Well Wisher says:

    UUsing mathematics as intended let us see how it translates.
    This is via Edward Hayward.
    Montecito population 8,500
    Spare sales 30
    Sold to 1 in 283 persons

    US population 331,900,000
    Spare sales 629,300
    Sold to 1 in 527 persons.

    The jealousy and envy makes everyone who engages in it look petty and makes their “news” unappealing and beggars belief.

    I saw this in the daily fail as well.

    • Saucy&Sassy says:

      Well Wisher, using hard copies only:

      UK population 69,000,000
      Spare sales 465,000
      Sold to 1 in 148 persons.

      It’s no wonder they didn’t report that.

  29. Gem says:

    Spare tops the Amazon charts in both Most Sold and Most Read. That’s all I need to know. Even the Daily Mail article on Facebook is getting a lot of pushback in the comments, people saying the DM looks desperate and pathetic.

  30. FilmTurtle says:

    It’s just creepy and unsettling for a major newspaper to print, about a person who has received continual death threats, “Here is where this person can be found alone.”

  31. tamsin says:

    On the whole, the paper tried to make it a negative story abut the title, but basically it says that Harry and Meghan are a settled members of the community and their neighbours don’t gossip about them to the press. The book seller points out that that week they were under evacuation orders. They told the paper how many books they sold. They didn’t say it was a disappointing number. I would just assume most people ordered the book online. Also, I can’t see a bunch of celebrities rushing to a bookstore either. The only negative comment came from the former British gossip journalist. This same professional gossiper did an interview of Archie and Lili’s “likely” schools, and speculated that the Sussexes might send their children to state schools like Meghan attended, so this so-called expert isn’t even aware that Meghan went to private schools. Indeed, a completely useless article, and they waited until the end to make the nasty comments. Can’t leave the people with the impression that the Sussex family are living happily. Who are they to believe- Harry who says he and his family are happy, or a British ex-pat gossip who has no access to the subjects he is speaking about? Seems like they set out to write a negative article and Montecito natives just wouldn’t cooperative; Thank God there is a miserable ex-pat transplant living there too.

  32. Mel says:

    The book is a WORLD WIDE bestseller. So what if it only sold 30 hard copies in some random bookstore.

  33. Emily_C says:

    Told ya so. The Guardian has been vile about Meghan and Harry for a long time. And now, this is Daily Heil-tier stuff.

    I don’t know why any American would subscribe to them when they’ve been incredibly clear about how much they hate Americans. That’s their normal lens for anti-Meghan and Harry articles, though there’s racism and misogyny in there too. Just of the sneakier kind.

  34. Lee says:

    British press getting desperate lol!

  35. Sass says:

    Considering it’s a small local business in a small beach town, 30 copies of one book is HUGE. These people are ridiculous

  36. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    She could pick up a piece of trash and throw it away, and they’d say it was performative. 🙄

  37. blue says:

    Remember that we were drowning here with unprecedented rain! Mudslides, flooding, evacs, power outtages, sandbagging.
    Going out to buy a book wasn’t our top priority for that first couple of weeks.

  38. Ohhh but tell me more about how the Guardian is one of the “good ones” who “don’t actually care about the monarchy!” /s

    But seriously, the Guardian has always been sh*t in sheep’s clothing when it comes to the Sussexes, which is why I stopped f*cking with them way before this. The whole British media is rotten to the core.

    • Emily_C says:

      Seriously, the people who have been claiming that the Guardian isn’t totally monarchist, and even some people saying they’re small-r republican, have been making me batty. Remember how they joined in the Philip hagiography when he croaked? Calling him a feminist and such?

    • clare says:

      Yep. The many articles coming from the Guardian about H&M have been snide. inaccurate and snobbish. They feed off them with clickbait just like the tabloids. Thank god I left that place.

  39. The Guardian has gone to the dogs. Rag.

  40. AC says:

    One of my sisters owns a beautiful home in Montecito. It’s very quiet and peaceful . A quintessential California laid back town that neighbors Santa Barbara and the Ventura beaches. People for the most part are doing their own thing and usually minding their own business. You’re living at a beach town in a way, it’s different than living in a city where people can be uptight . So , I can see why the British tabloids are having a hard time to get any gossip from neighbors there . LoL. They should just rent a beach house right on the beach and enjoy the lifestyle instead of defaming people’s characters. LOL. Much healthier and happier living !
    Also in a way, since Meghan has joined the BRF, you see more of the British feeling of anti-Americanism, I see some Americans also catching on. (I’ve seen this when visiting the UK for many years . The moment you speak with an American accent you’re automatically judged). I know there are some Americans skipping the UK entirely for study abroad and/or for their travels. They better be careful as once they lose the Goodwill of the majority of American people, they can become irrelevant . Right now majority of Americans still love everything about the UK, but if this keeps continuing it can have consequences. Everything Americans had loved about the UK can all turn Sour.

  41. QuiteContrary says:

    Most authors would love for an indie bookstore to sell 30 of their books. Nice going, Harry.

  42. Bellah says:

    I just don’t understand their constant attempt to either exaggerate and criticize or negate everything this couple does! What a sad lot.

    Most of the sales were likely from online orders, not in-store purchases. The book was a bestseller even before the release date.
    I and most of my girlfriends ordered both the hardcover AND the audiobook online as soon as it was available for pre-order. We were not going to risk waiting for brick and mortar stores inventory availability.

  43. rea says:

    People might have gotten an e-book or gotten it from someone else. Its not the end of the world; just one store.

  44. Sybil says:

    Disappointing to see The Guardian, a self proclaimed leading liberal voice, lowering itself to the kind of tittle-tattle the Murdoch tabloids feed on.
    Their readers are targeted as well-educated, affluent, digitally- savvy and
    liberal
    Tabloid rags such as MailOnline urge us to “feed our daily addition addiction with trending and viral videos, celebrity photos & rumours.
    So the “news” is that Harry is an ordinary bloke and the one person they interviewed used to work on a British tabloid.
    Come on Guardian, you can do better (C-)