Even before most of us have got our hands on the most hotly anticipated book since…Harry Potter?! … the publishers of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare have already announced that it is the UK’s fastest-selling non-fiction book ever.
According to Transworld Penguin Random House, the book has already sold 400,000 copies across hardback, ebook and audio formats.
The publishing house’s managing director Larry Finlay said “We always knew this book would fly but it is exceeding even our most bullish expectations.”
“As far as we know, the only books to have sold more in their first day are those starring the other Harry (Potter).”
This, despite some reports of very few buyers in bookstores.
“8am, Waterstones Piccadilly. Only 1 customer in the queue, and perhaps 40 journalists,” one UK journalist tweeted.
On social media, fans and detractors are butting heads, with some calling the book ‘a joke’ while others are praising Harry’s decision to write the book.
“Whatever your view on the Royal Family, it’s increasingly clear that Harry & William were both engulfed in trauma after their mother’s death & left to work their way out of it,” one user said. “To be vulnerable is difficult. No one should be mocked for voicing their pain.”
The world continues to watch as Harry makes the rounds during his book tour. He has already appeared beside high profile interviewers, including with Anderson Cooperon on 60 Minutes, Tom Bradby in the UK, Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, and most recently, with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, where he revealed:
“Without a doubt, the most dangerous lie that they [the British press] have told, is that I somehow boasted about the number of people I killed in Afghanistan.”