Prince Harry’s Spare broke sales records in its first weeks and months. Publishing experts had predicted, before Spare was released, that the memoir would need to sell about 2 million copies to “break even” for the publisher, given Harry’s eight-figure advance. Spare sold 3.2 million copies… in its first week. It continued to appear on bestseller lists in North America and across the world for weeks and months. It was the most talked-about memoir of the year (sorry to Britney and Jada). As all of that was happening, the British media was desperately trying to convince their readers that Spare was a flop, that no one in jolly olde England would dare buy a copy. I’ve heard (anecdotally) that everyone in London was reading Spare right after it came out. And that was after the British media waged an unhinged hate campaign – people still wanted to read Harry’s words for themselves. Well, guess what was the best-selling book in the UK in 2023? And guess who is super-salty about it?? From the Telegraph’s sulky piece, “Prince Harry’s Spare most sold book on Amazon this year, but not most read.”
The Duke of Sussex’s memoir was the best-selling book on Amazon this year, but not the most read. Spare, which included explosive allegations about the Royal family and details about their private lives, was published at the beginning of the year.
It has now taken the top spot on Amazon Books’ best-selling titles of 2023, beating Britney Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me, and books by Colleen Hoover, the popular young adult fiction author of This Ends With Us.
It follows a publicity blitz that resulted in the book selling a record 1.4 million copies across the UK, US and Canada on its first day of publication in early January.
However, the Duke’s memoir was only ranked number six on Amazon’s separate most read list, which is measured by the average number of daily Kindle readers and Audible listeners. In this category, Spare was beaten by five Harry Potter novels, with Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix in the top spot.
The two UK-based lists, published by Amazon on Tuesday, come after the 416-page memoir was labelled the most traded-in biography of the year by We Buy Books. According to the books specialist, which “turns unwanted books into cash”, Spare was accepted 459 times. A spokesman said: “We limit how many we accept in a timeframe so chances are if we’d accepted every copy, there’d have been a lot more!”
One, I love how bitter the British media is about Harry’s massive publishing success. “It’s not the most read book!” Oh, it’s just behind the most popular children’s series of all time, huh? “People traded it in!” Oh, but they still bought it new and then wanted to pass it along so other people could read it second-hand? Which just shows Spare’s ubiquity – Spare occupies the same “everyone has a copy” space as something like John Grisham’s The Firm or Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. “People bought it on sale!” And? Do you have anything against discounted books? For goodness sake. Someone get these people a big bucket of COPE.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
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 
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* 
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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