All of the photo agencies we use have “glamour shots” of Prince Harry’s Spare – photographers really went into bookstores and posed hardcopies in various ways and it’s amazing. Anyway, as everyone predicted, Spare is an enormous publishing coup. It will likely go down as one of the biggest nonfiction books of all time. What’s even funnier is that even after Fleet Street has done the most to lie, harass and threaten Harry, British people are buying the book in droves.
Prince Harry’s Spare has sold almost half a million copies in the UK in its first week on sale, making it the fastest-selling nonfiction book since records began. According to Nielsen, Spare sold a total of 467,183 print copies through UK retailers in its first week of release, making it No 1 on the book charts. This does not include ebook sales or audiobook copies.
Penguin Random House (PRH) UK said the book had sold 750,000 copies in the UK across all formats – hardbacks, ebooks and audiobooks – in its first week. Of these, 400,000 copies were on its first day on sale in the UK.
Larry Finlay, managing director of Transworld, the PRH division which published the book in the UK, said Guinness World Records had confirmed that Spare was the fastest-selling nonfiction book ever on its first day of publication. Finlay said as well as being the fastest selling, “we now know that it is also the biggest selling memoir ever in its first week of publication”.
Waterstones said the pre-orders for Spare, which are counted in the first official week of sales, were “the largest on record for a nonfiction title” for the retailer, with nonfiction category manager John Cotterill saying they were “delighted with the first week’s performance”.
“Waterstones’ sales of Spare have been exceptional,” Cotterill said. “Seven days after publication, Spare is one of Waterstones’ fastest-selling books in a decade.”
The book also remains No 1 on the Amazon bestsellers chart, and is the site’s bestselling nonfiction title. The US had originally printed two million copies, and the publisher is now reprinting.
Again, that’s just British sales. I assumed – and I still assume – that the biggest markets for Spare will be outside of the UK. Harry might be a British prince, but he’s become a global icon, and this kind of “tell-all memoir-writing” hasn’t happened in decades for someone in Harry’s position. Now, do I also love the fact that British people want to read the book for themselves instead of just believing the Daily Mail’s version of everything? Yes.
Also: Spare is Ireland’s best-selling non-fiction book since records began. 20,584 copies of Spare have been sold in Ireland in its first week.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.
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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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- 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
lol ireland, of course. also some bookstores in santa barbara are including it in their “local authors” section!
Lol well he’s local (ish) now…. 😉
omg I love that.
Ok that’s cute. I don’t think he would ever but imagine the lines if he did a book signing.
At our local bookstore, local authors pop in and just sign the books without telling the story. I bought one and didn’t realize until I got home that it was signed, so I told the bookstore and they moved all those books onto their special “signed copies” shelf lol (since the author signed multiple copies.) I can see Harry doing something like that, just going to a store in stealth mode and signing some copies, especially once the furor has died down a bit and the books are on the regular shelves, not the front tables etc.
Okay, Harry in stealth mode at a local book store would be v cute. He could pose for photos with the book over his face like others are doing and then reveal that it’s actually him. And then leave behind the signed copies. But he’d have to do it quick.
Adding this for fun. A friend was visiting New Mexico years ago. She was in a used bookstore and finding tons of out-of-print Rudolfo Anaya books (one of her ultimate fav writers). Adult, teen, kids, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays, everything.
Picture her wandering around the store finding book after treasured book. Exclaiming out loud to herself about how happy she was, had been looking for this one forever, and this one, and this one, and OMG this one too! Turns around with her huge stack of books to find Anaya smiling at her. He took the stack, signed every book, and gave them back to her.
Harry could do one of those videos where hair and special effects makeup make him into a different person so he could go into a rigged store and sign copies until people cotton to who the person signing books is. I love seeing professional athletes do it and Adele did it pretty well.
I love the Anaya books too. What a great anecdote.
That’s awesome.
I did appreciate that in his Colbert interview, Harry said “California is beautiful and America is a great place to live.” The audience cheered.
Can we keep him, England? He doesn’t eat much!
However much he eats, he pays for it himself, so a better bargain than some of his relatives.
LOL, too funny. Yes, I think most americans find Harry intriguing and interesting and my oh my –his mother’s spirit does live alive in him. That was a very good thing to see.
Hahahaha Santa Barbara I love this so much :).
It’s VERY clear from his reception on Stephen Colbert that the USA has adopted him.
I never thought we would be so happy to have a British Prince, but yup, this family has won hearts here. I can’t wait for the day he gets an American passport. Thanks, England, we will be glad to keep him!
America has been looking for a new prince since the tragic lost of JFK, Jr., we just didn’t think our new prince would be British. The childhood trauma, the good looks, the charm, the charisma, the beautiful glamorous wife, America has a type.
So the basic rule is if the tabloids say it’s gonna fail (re the Sussexes) it’s a huge success.
Anyway well done Harry
Will it come out in paperback too?
I’m sure the tabloids themselves bought a lot of copies to dissect and criticize. Especially the DM, they’ve so many articles about Spare one would think they wrote it.
Paperbacks usually come out a year after the hard copy editions are printed. I wonder if his publisher will drop it at Christmas?
Please do a paperback version and then, in coronation week, release a NEW BOOK with all the pages you had left from the first. Omg can you imagine the British press headlines, “Harry publishes new tell all book, He has done this to overshadow the Kings coronation”, that would appear in MASSIVE script across every single UK paper, then as a side bar, there would be a small peice that reads, “for pictures of the coronation, please turn to page 3 😂😂😂, Charlie would sob in his robes and crown and Prince Billy bully would scream at the archbishop 😂😂😂Khate would sob into the late queen’s jewels and cowmilla would be screeching down the phone to the D. M., 😂😂😂😂
By mentioning it so many times before it came out and continuing to write about it (and the fallout in the RF), the press has ensured that it would be a huge success. This is the Streisand Effect writ large.
For decades to come business schools will study how this book was turned into a best-seller by the people trying to stop it !
“Will it come out in paper book, too?”
Count on it.
Ha! Princess Anne is grinding her teeth as she read your paperback comment. lol
Go good king Harry… I bought 4 copies (2 hardcovers, 1 audio, 1 kindle) and will participate in the new sussexsquad initiative to buy more copies
so I could donate to a few librairies on the east coast!!! The rf and trashy bm will regret the day they decided to attempt to destroy Doria Ragland’s daughter!
Absolutely love this energy!
Love this! Does anyone know if there’s a list of libraries with extremely long waiting lists for the book? I would love to buy a couple of copies to donate to some of them. It wouldn’t make a huge difference but it would help a little.
CB had a post on some of them the other day. Or you could try contacting nationwide library associations (American Library Association, Canadian Library Association, etc.) to see if they have ideas to help you direct those copies. Maybe a member of SussexSquad could take on the task of contacting those orgs? SussexSquad could help smaller libraries set up wishlists on (evil) Amazon. Copies could be purchased and sent directly to libraries in need. Or more simply, you could go to your local library, ask if they need another copy, and buy it for them.
Call your local library!
As you all doubt know by now, I’m a Brit (sorry) and live in cornwall. On the day of release of this best seller I went into my local library and all the copies they carried were already out of as 9.05 am! They only opened at 9!! They said their waiting list was at 75 already and the phone was going bonkers with people asking for it
I had to pop into my local supermarket on the way back from hospital and managed to grab one of the last 3 copies. Now the British press can all go suck on a lemon, because when they say and publish THIER doctored poles that Harry is hated in the UK, they are doing their usual thing and printing a load of bull. I’m part way through my copy and I can remember most of the lies that the usual rags printed as headlines, and Harry has jogged my memory of a few others! I had the pleasure of meeting Harry twice. Once when we were both in uniform and once as a civy, and I can say hand on heart, he is the most genuine warm young man you could ever hope to meet. USA, your gain really is our loss, and I for one will NEVER forgive our chinless wonder king and his eldest, nasty little son for helping the rabid British media drive him out.
Awww, Mary Pester, thank you for sharing! I love firsthand accounts of what a great guy Harry is, and lucky you, TWICE!
VS I am buying copies for presents as well. I love this energy so so much
So who are these ” people ” who keep trashing him and his family . Do they even exist , or are they all RF employees ? Harry has such ease and charm and his sincerity just shines in all the interviews. Kate and William can bare their phony smiles but you cannot fake this . Harry is his mother , and Diana would be proud .
Hey I just noticed one of the big pics is of the Dutch version, Reserve. I asked at a local store and they were out on all 5 copies, which they found to be surprising considering the hefty(EUR 29.99) price.
go Harry!!
I think its very telling that so many people want to read his own story, in his own words. It tells me that a lot of people realize that what is said in the tabloid press isn’t the full story (or even part of what actually happened) and they want to find out more.
There have been a few opinion pieces in the US press (WaPo etc) that seem to criticize the book (I haven’t clicked on the links, lol) but the majority of comments on social media to those pieces are VERY positive. I’m seeing a lot of “I thought he would just be whining, but actually the book is very well done and now I understand why they left” type of comments. I think this book is reaching a LOT of people and changing how they view the british press and the royal family.
Maureen Dowd wrote a positive opinion piece on Spare in the NY Times last week. I was shocked; Maureen is usually snarky and mean to celebrities.
That is shocking. Snark is her stock in trade.
Maureen is Irish-American. A lot them are skeptical of the British Royals, for very good reasons. I’m not saying that’s why she wrote a good review of the book. But it is true that unlike some Americans, she probably wouldn’t be inclined to have some weird misguided admiration for the institution our country fought to escape.
I was afraid to read the Dowd piece, because she IS snarky. Thanks for telling us. The other NYT story on the book was nasty. The author said she was becoming bored with M&H. Because she writes for the NYT, she felt her feelings reflected the feelings of the entire world. Hah.
Whether the reader loves Harry, is neutral on him or hates his guts, Random House doesn’t care as long as you’re lining their pockets with that sweet, sweet cash. And these British tabloids still don’t understand that they are fueling that fire.
If they had backed off when Harry and Meghan left, the public fascination might have faded as they lay low most of the year, but they can’t help themselves.
That’s why I’m laughing about the people who say they are buying the book to burn it. But……you’re still buying it, yes? You’re still giving money to the publisher and Harry, yes? That’s all they care about. Burn away lol.
Oh, I’m sure they’ll burn their copies. After “flipping through” it thoroughly to see “what kind of garbage it is.”
(And then sneakily buying a second copy to re-read and keep.)
Of course Meghan haters (AKA fake W&K stans) want to burn books. They are rabid Drumphers.
Harry and PRH wouldn’t even have had to do interviews to promote the book, thanks to the rabid UK media, but Harry was brilliant to use those opportunities to taunt the BRF and RR, who can’t help themselves but react to every twitch of his beard, and to provide more grist for the mill. Cha-ching!
If the tabloids had backed off they wouldn’t have made millions off of trashing Harry and Meghan. They totally understand that they’re fueling the fire – they’re staying warm by that fire, too.
Good! Y’all, I bought the audio version and my earpiece was stuck to my head like glue. It’s so good. I’ve been consistently impressed by PH — his honesty, his tenderness, his sense of self in the face of all the efforts to obliterate it …he was primed to Duchess Megan, like you’ve said before!
But listen, I need the podcast! I’ve been listening to audiobooks and was so looking forward to catching up on all the celebitchy pods, covering Spare (there is no other story, and you can cover it like no one else—for example, there were times he obliquely referred to planted stories where I could remember what he might be referring to, but other times I couldn’t—but I know you do—and oh how I want to hear from your weekly conference call peeps!).
Basically, I’m feeling like I’m saying, “CAN YOU EVEN” and you’re not there to say “I KNOW!”
All of this is positive pressure, not negative. I know it’s your busy season and whatnot.
Love you, women!
LOL, I’ve done my part in the US — just sitting here mulling over whether to get the paperback when it’s available …
Anyway, I’m gaining (as I said yesterday, maybe too credulous) a belief that more and more people, worldwide, are starting to get what Harry and Meghan have been saying about the garbage that the tabloids (and broadsheets) have been writing at the RF’s behest for decades because of their unholy alliance — proven every damned day — and are gobbling up Harry’s own words like they’re dipped in chocolate.
I’m looking forward to getting some profit numbers one day soon!
I am really proud of Harry. Not only is the book selling like crazy it’s getting really good reviews. It’s a wonderful book and I like and respect him even more. I am not a fan of audio books but his is incredible! He is a great story teller.
His voice… I am a widow and tell my friends.. I am going to bed with harry!! His voice is so soothing it sends me to sleep. Lucky Meghan!!!!
How stupid do they look now huh? lol
Go Harry
Why is no one talking about the bread crumbs in this book?
Prince Harry talks at different times about how he had no home, he had no money to buy clothes other than dress clothes. He was required to attend events to wear those clothes. Then he was given a shack on an estate, look at the photos. It’s not a glamorous space.
He and his wife ask to go their own path to make money and not be forced to live as a poor relative. They are declined.
The control of a person and puppetry through holding the purse strings in all over this book. Follow the money
What do you mean? We’ve talked about that a lot.
The difference is stark. QEII, how she treated her three younger children, the houses purchased or built for two of them. Eddie got left out in the cold with personal real estate, but did get a silly deal on the Bagshot lease for which she must have paid like she must have for Andrew on Royal Lodge. Her keeping elders on the books so they have grace-and-favour homes, staff, funding, clothing budgets because they supported her in her younger years.
Vs. Charles and his attitude towards Harry. I’ve written many times before, Harry should have been moved to Civil List/Sovereign Grant funding the second he turned 18. He should not have been funded out of the Duchy of Cornwall after that. He was never the future Duke of Cornwall, he should have been moved to his own apartment at KP or BP, given an annual ‘work’ stipend equivalent to being third in line at the time, somewhere to land between trainings and deployments. Someone (Charles? Charles+William) insisted on keeping Harry under the Cornwall/Clarence House banner in order to control him and abuse/bully him financially.
The houses came when the children got married, however. Charles bought Highgrove when he was single, with Duchy money.
Charles is a fool who has this idea about cutting spending. Because he’s stubborn and doesn’t know how the real world works, he just imagines that if he cuts the funds of family members, they should be able to still live a royal lifestyle on their own, because why shouldn’t they? He’s a nightmare.
It doesn’t matter when the physical separate houses came. The funding (ie. spending cash) and places for them to live (apartments at KP, BP, Windsor, whatever) were all handed out to QEII’s kids from the start. Harry should have been rolled into that existing set-up the second he turned 18.
Highgrove wasn’t the first house the Duchy purchased for Charles to live in. Once he found Highgrove, around the time of getting engaged to Diana, he convinced the Duchy to buy it and sell the other house. Charles isn’t cutting spending AT ALL. He’s taking all the funding, to the tune of 600 million annually in taxpayer cash, and directing all towards himself (and towards keeping Andrew the disgusting wildcard in check by funding his life).
I interpret it more as neglect. He had no one looking out for him or giving serious thought to his situation. William was all ‘I don’t know him’ and Charles’ priority was Camilla. William perked up when he realized Harry was pulling together some cool projects (walking with the wounded, IG) and they all perked up when he partnered with Meghan and they became a force. They weren’t paying attention to him, they never really knew him and they didn’t care
They were paying enough attention for 1) Charles to try to stop him from founding Sentebale at 19 and 2) William trying to horn in on Sentebale from the start. They both wanted to control him and any outside projects.
I learn so much about the BRP from reading through the comments section. Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us americans (most of us don’t know anything about the BRF but I’ve always been curious about them because of all of the fanfare surrounding Harry, William, their beautiful mother Princess Di and even Charles to some degree.) I was just thinking now — how interesting would it be if another senior royal ‘jumped ship’ so to speak and started telling the real truths and wanted out of the BRF like Harry. It would be explosive.
Charles is stingy AF. He’s like one of those vaguely villainous rich aunts in a 19th century novel. who keeps some poor younger relation under her thrall and thumb with her wealth: doling it out sparsely, threatening to withdraw it entirely if not obeyed. And then doing just that.
How can a man do that to his own son? Oh that’s right…he thinks Harry might not be his. He’s a ginger! Bollocks. You only have to look at Philip with a beard to know Harry is part Windsor. Or I guess I should say Mountbatten.
Oh wow! Aunt March to the tee!
@notasugarhere, I didn’t know about their efforts to thwart sentebale. I’m 2/3 of the way through the book and this hasn’t been addressed. Harry did say he thought William was annoyed by IG and wished Harry had run it by him first
Of course, he wanted IG run by him so that he could claim it as his idea.
I said the same thing!! Soo cool to see others think the same thing. it’s in the head shape, neck shoulders — spitting image of Phillip in that. The structure of the skull– sounds morbid but it is true. The Windsor/Mountbatten men genes are kind of random aren’t they lol… Andrew doesn’t look like QEII or Phillip to me. He was quite handsome in his youth though. Charles & Anne look like QEII’s mini mes. William looked like Princess Di when he was young but looks nothing like her now. He doesn’t resemble the Windsors or the Mountbattens from what I see. Harry favors Phillip to me and I think the Spenser lineage. He doesn’t favor the Windsors at all imho either. Then Will’s kids — I think they must take after his wife because other than the girl Caroline who looks like a very young QEII to me, none of them look like the Windsors or Mountbattens either. Yep, random genes at work there lol
All of that has been covered on this site but I haven’t seen other sites covering the financial abuse heaped on Harry his whole life. A lot of sites/tabloids are skipping that because it doesn’t fit their (fake) narrative of Harry being a whiner.
Maybe I’ll buy a copy and send it to a friend, who is mixed like Meghan and was mad that she brought up the baby skin color thing, because that’s also what happens in households of people of color. But you know, it’s not the same. Colorism (and by extension, self-loathing) in communities of color is also usually historically linked to white supremacy and colonialism. It’s like the n-word: you don’t get to use it since your ancestors and their ilk are the ones who weaponized it. And white curiosity can’t be considered innocent because of the way our society has constructed itself and formed an artificial hierarchy around race/skin color. But, yeah, so many people who listen to the Sussexes tell what happened to them in detail like this, in their own words, have had changes of heart. Lemme do my part to try to change one more.
I was not prepared for just how freakin’ good Harry was at this narration business on the audio book format. He varies tone, pace, volume, pitch, and even slight accents, in ways that are almost as good as some of the professional narrators I’ve listened to with other audio books. He makes the audio version of “Spare” even more special.
Agreed. I’ve listened to a lot of audiobooks and his reading is excellent. It truly makes the book for me. Especially the dialogue parts.
ITA, hearing the story in his own voice is incredible. The only part that got a bit tedious was the descriptions of his different military activities, especially the period where he was the air controller so he’s basically just reconstructing conversations he had while sitting in a room for months.
The cover is so elegant with the various titles – I wonder if he will collect one in each language and wallpaper a study or den? I totally would, but I’m sorta tacky 🙃 I added another hold at my library, but in Large Print this time so that will up my odds of receiving it sooner!! They added LP copies specifically at my home library so my Hold gets preference!!! Yay
I would wallpaper every single one of my “excessive” bathrooms in Spare covers, in all of the languages, if I was Harry.
I’m sorta tacky too!
Thanks goes in part to the British press’ overreaction to the book. When they thought they were damaging sales they were actually boosting them. I’m happy for Harry that the book has been so successful. I think one of the aims of the book was to get the Palace to stop briefing against Harry and Meghan and it seems that has been accomplished.
“ I think one of the aims of the book was to get the Palace to stop briefing against Harry and Meghan and it seems that has been accomplished”
That hasn’t been my impression, there’s a lot around the coronation being covered by celebitchy
We’ve seen article after article full of “royal sources” and “insiders” and “a source close to William/Charles” so no, I don’t think the Palace has stopped briefing.
Ah yes, the #$%&@*!! coronation — and all the adjunct discussions in the UK media of whether Harry & Meghan will be invited, and whether they’ll come if they are, and whether Charles is willing to reconcile, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
I don’t think any of these discussions are really about reconciliation or forgiveness or what have you. I think it’s just Chucky Boy trying to ensure a smooth, relatively drama-free coronation for himself, one in which he and Queen Side Chick are the center of attention. Not gonna happen. For better or worse, Harry and Meghan are the stars of the BRF, and even a full-fat coronation with gilded carriage and all isn’t going to change that. Chucky and Queen Side Chick are going to be sidelined at the apex of their royal lives.
Seems the palace is briefing more than ever, while pretending to keep a “dignified silence.”
In fact, they almost seem to be in overdrive. Hopefully, the more people read the book, the more eyes will be opened. In that way, ironically, the RR will help Harry and Meghan.
I pre-ordered my copy but only got to start reading on Sunday night and full credit to his ghostwriter and the relationship they presumably built up as it really pulled me in. Based on the first couple of paragraphs in the intro I thought the language might be a little flowery for my taste but either it changed or I stopped noticing. I was always going to be interested in reading it as this is a never before seen look behind the curtain of stolen jewels but I’m so impressed with how easily it reads. Yet again the Sussexes show up and deliver high quality work, no wonder the rest of the royals wanted rid of them.
That’s our good king Harry and his well deserved success
I am so happy about this, you’d think I published the book myself, lol.
Penguin Random House can have my money. I pre-ordered two copies at full price and I regret nothing.
An infographic was made comparing Spare’s first week print sales to all other memoirs released in the UK since they’ve been tracking sales and the gap is ABSURD. Spare is sitting at 467k while the next closest, former ManUtd manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography, is only at 116k. Spare has more than 3 times the sales of its closest competition. Crazy. Also important to note that most books in this top ten list are 20 years old. The only other one from the last half decade is A Promised Land by President Obama and Spare sold almost 6x as much as that.
https://twitter.com/anna_itsonlyme/status/1615434472731598856?t=uI0rde_vY69E9brUBMSsCw&s=19
I can’t afford it right now so I’m on my library waiting list, and guys? The demand CRASHED THE LIBRARY’S WEBSITE.
It’s a mid-sized library system, and as it’s in Florida of course it’s underfunded. I don’t blame the library. But I’m so annoyed to not even know where I am on the waiting list. I requested it as early as I could and I still was at 100-something.
I’m getting a copy from my local library branch. I’m no. 27 in line. Despite all the excerpts printed I want to read the book in total. There is Twitter snark that the book only sold so well in the UK because of the half price. If the book was complete garbage it wouldn’t sell at any price. The hate purchases, as I call them, only serve to enrich Penguin’s bottom line and the Sussexes’ and ghostwriter’s bank accounts. Casa Montecito will be paid off at this rate; and Archie and Lili will have fat trust and college funds. It’s nice to know not everyone in the UK drunk the tabloid/BRF Kool Aidand want to judge fror themselves by reading the book.
It would have been sold on Amazon for 40% off anyway, so they’re just making up things to be mad about. The mark-up on book prices can be big (used to be able to order 40 percent off at work all the time through the work wholesale account).
Harry already has his money, that’s generally how it goes with something this big. It was explained to me as the publishing bucket. An author like this gets a huge pre-payment to write the book. That’s the start of the size of the bucket that needs to be filled through sales. The size of that bucket expands with the deal to the ghostwriter, the physical cost of publication (editing, design, printing), the cost of marketing. So Harry has his money, Penguin Random House has a big bucket to fill – which is probably going to end up overflowing and earning everybody extra on top. Harry and the ghostwriter likely get a percentage of any profits above X amount too, once Penguin Random House has paid all of their own costs.
I just checked my local library. Our system has 51 hardback copies. and there are almost 200 holds, which I’m surprised at. My county is pretty big and has two areas that are well populated, more suburbs than rural, but the rest is pretty rural and spread out and very very red. so I’m surprised we have so many copies and that there is such a long wait list.
ETA there are two copies available at my local branch but those are the one week check outs – my branch puts out a copy or two of new releases and best sellers that are for one week only, so if you can read fast or are going to the beach for a week, you can grab something new without having to wait. So those will prob be gone within an hour.
Looking forward to picking up my two pre ordered copies!
I’ve decided to make a bit of an occasion of reading Spare, having booked some annual leave at the end of the month and also a gorgeous room at a pub/small hotel.
Looking forward very much to spoiling myself with lovely pub grub (hello Shepherd’s pie and Sticky Toffee pudding..!) and lounging around reading. Very, very well done Harry..!
Here is my library. I added a hold on the Audible since I bought the Kindle after the Colbert interview.
E book . 1872 holds on 182 copies
Book 1409 on 280 copies
Audible 232 on 15 copies
Audible just sent out a $10 coupon because the delivery of Spare was delayed on publication day! (I received it about 10:30 Eastern time.) I remember being surprised at the delay but also happy for Harry as it showed how overwhelming the demand was.
I listen to a shocking number of Audible books and yes, this one is extraordinary because of Harry’s narration. I do hope he gets nominated for a Grammy award.
A Grammy nomination is a given, and a win is a distinct possibility, judging by the positive reviews in the press of Harry’s narration. If the H&M documentary on Netflix is nominated for an Emmy, I fully expect Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson to go spare in their respective columns (pun intended). If the audiobook and documentary win, I expect Morgan’s and Clarkson’s heads to explode. I’m so here for that.
This is the only way I expected H&M to attend the awards show. If they’re nominated.
@VS Would love to contribute to an initiative involving donating the book to those not able to purchase it. Any ideas or links?
how about donating copies to libraries? the waitlists seem huge everywhere.
Yes, but don’t have the time right now to look for the book; ordered mine online. Would be willing to make a monetary donation to legit efforts.
Reading your public library stats made me decide to check mines. I work at the Louisville Free Public Library in Louisville, KY. We have 69 paper book copies with a reserve list of 355 people as of Wednesday January 18. We bought 35 ebook licenses and have waiting list of 435 people — the estimated wait time is 25 weeks. ebooks go out for 14 days. Paper books go out for 21 days. We did buy it on CD …. 3 copies with a reserve list of 10 people. I have been working in the public library realm since 1993. The only time you saw numbers like this was Harry Potter books and Oprah Book Club reads. I am very happy he’s being so well receieved via this book.
Same. I was one of the ones standing in line at midnight for the Harry Potter books, this energy is familiar, and it’s especially exciting, because it’s an autobiography. This is not going to happen again in my life, and I’m 48. Yay, BOOKS!
Damn straight. I hope they make a mint off these haters.
☝️💯
I have Kindle copies in both English and French! Reading back and forth depending on my mood, heh.
All hate reading? I doubt it. His yougov numbers are awful, but if they want him to fail, buying his book is a pretty stupid way to go about it.
I am on a book buying moratorium but broke it for this one! I’ve been savoring it.
YouGov, like any survey site, can manipulate questions and the respondents to get any results they wish in order to please those paying for the survey.
The director of Fayard publishing house was on the radio this morning. She said the launch of Barack Obama ‘s book was considered a success in France. 35 000 copies were sold the first week. The French version of Spare sold 85 000 copies in 5 days. They are beyond thrilled!
So I just reserved my copy at our local library.
Lucky #13
😁