Prince Harry's Memoir: A World Publishing Phenomenon

[MrsMaxDeWinter]

There will likely be several bashing threads on Harry's memoir before it is published, but I am interested in discussing with anyone who is interested in the very interesting marketing choices of the publishers and their approach.

English language editions of SPARE will be published on 10 January 2023 in EIGHT territories: the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Canada.

The book will also be published in translation in 15 additional languages:

SPANISH Plaza & Janés/Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial
GERMAN Penguin Verlag/Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe GmbH, PORTUGUESE BRAZIL Objetiva/Grupo Companhia das Letras
PORTUGUESE PORTUGAL Objectiva/Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, SIMPLIFIED CHINESE Penguin Random House China
DANISH Politikens Forlag
DUTCH Hollands Diep, an imprint of Overamstel
FINNISH Otava Publishing Company Ltd
FRENCH Éditions Fayard
GREEK Pedio Books
HUNGARIAN Corvina Kiadó
ITALIAN Mondadori,
POLISH Wydawnictwo Marginesy,
ROMANIAN Nemira Publishing House,
SWEDISH Albert Bonniers Förlag.

This is absolutely sensational as it means it will be simultaneously published in 23 territories on the same day.

There are not many books where simultaneous release occurs in different markets. From this, I would say that the book will more than earn its advance, just from the foreign sales alone.

They also chose a banger of a title as it puts focus on the troubling notion of the Spare in a system based on primogeniture, and one that imbues both intrinsic and extrinsic value based on a person's birth order.

Imagine growing up knowing that no matter how loved you may be, your constitutional role is ultimately to be the spare to the heir.

Can't wait to read it!

Ha! Sorry a little off thread but this just makes me think - oh no, another thing to make the Brits look ridiculous to an international audience. Just when I thought our national reputation couldn’t sink much lower, the PH show and tell! Stretched out over three books?!

I’ve just read an article that starts like this… The past few months have been rough for the United Kingdom. Energy prices are soaring. National inflation has breached double digits. The longest-serving British monarch has died. The shortest-serving prime minister has quit.

At some point hopefully we will all get our shit together and deliver some positive news from the U.K. but this book isn’t going to be it!

OP I think it’s wonderful that you enjoy reading books in different languages, it must be great fun. I hope you enjoy them :-)

Err, Gabriel Byrne is not British, he’s Irish.

PreparationPreparationPrep

The post is about the work of the couple which is a demolition of the credibility of the Royal Family. So in posting on a thread about the couple, I'm posting in support of the Royal Family.

The title of Harry's book: 'Spare' is a scathing one and certainly a depersonalising one: it doesn't present Harry as the man he has become, which is what, a year ago he said he wanted for the slant of his book. So in being critical of the project, one isn't really being critical of Harry's worthwhile dreams and causes, it's being critical of how the publishers are likely to have styled the content.

I'd bet that Diana used the term 'spare' ironically, when she said it to Harry. She surely didn't say to her own child that the family see him as just a back up.

OP I think it’s wonderful that you enjoy reading books in different languages, it must be great fun. I hope you enjoy them :-)

I love it! I was lucky to be raised in three languages as a child, so acquiring the next two was a lot easier😁

That rings true to me.

I mean this:

Meanwhile, back to the topic, it is fantastic to see SPARE do so well across the world, topping or heading up the best seller list in several territories.

The OP may be absolutely on the level, but they are a using a style that comes across as soft corporate speak, designed to give the impression of expertly speaking on behalf of others and not merely themself.

It’s just not very persuasive in this context, with this subject matter, because so many people already have so much information on it all and their own opinions formed.

😀😀

Thank you for the compliment, I may consider applying for a "corporate speak" job.

Make sure that ‘heading up’ is always doing some heavy lifting.

@AutumnsCrow

Meghan's podcast series 'Archetypes' has been nominated for a People's Choice Award and is heading up the list of the most listened to podcasts.

You are right. I have a knack for this!!

its a triumph of marketing over substance. They

Does anyone think that Harry has universal deep insights of life ? That it will be a story of an ‘amazing character ‘ overcoming challenges that would knock the rest of us to the ground?

or a spoilt man boy, indulged all his life having a strop and lashing out.

does anyone think it will be ‘a long walk to free so’

@MrsMaxDeWinter

Thank you for replying.

Don’t you think making negative sweeping statements about British culture that turn out to be untrue kind of undermines your points?

You are obviously entitled to your opinion. I understand that you don’t like Britain, British people or the royal family. That is fair enough (if a little bigoted) but don’t make up stuff just to point score. It debases your entire argument.

And I would point out that continuing to post endless threads about everything Harry and Meghan do is just perpetuating the cycle of drama and furling division.

I find it such an odd mindset that you either have to be totally pro something or totally against it. It is one of the reason that I despair about US politics leaking over to the U.K. We used ti be more nuanced.

See also this week US TV show hosts not understanding that British and American English are two different forms of the language and that in the U.K. ‘Asian’ mean people from the Indian sun continent and not South East Asian and China. Fucking American cultural imperialism.

I suspect this was the main issue Meghan had. It is the same issue my American family have when they come over.

Anybody can buy them. Literally anyone. 😉

@Ohnonevermind given that Harry didn't spent 27 years on Robben Island for fighting a brutal, racist apartheid state, I don't think his memoir will be anything like "A Long Walk to Freedom".

@Legrandsophie not sure what sweeping statements I have made about British culture. It is hard to debate with you because you are the one who actually makes a sweeping statement about what I have said, and when I ask for examples, you respond with another sweeping statement.

I don't dislike the British at all. I especially like and admire British people who are contributing to diversity in public life, politicians like Rishi Sunak, Kemi Badenoch, Diane Abbot, Baroness Amos ... I don't have to like any of their politics to appreciate them. I love British fiction writers from Zadie Smith, Harry Kunzru, Salman Rushdie to Monaca Ali. I devour classics, Dickens, Austen, Brontes, Eliot. I love the WWI poets. Oh, and Dr Who and Red Dwarf! So much to love about Britain.

I don't dislike the Royal Family either.

I find them amusing and entertaining. As an outsider, I am amused by the many hypocrisies, especially that God, as interpreted by an Anglican Church that came into being essentially because a king long ago wanted to divorce one woman and marry another, a church moreover with increasingly diminishing followers, the God of that church has anointed members of this one family of fairly average intelligence and competence to be perpetual rulers of Crown dominions, including, until our independence, my own African country, and the same God apparently wants only the eldest son of that family, no matter how ill-suited he may be to the role, to inherit the throne. And he does so because he was born first.

It is silly and preposterous, particularly when said family is then involved in scandal after scandal, from dodgy financial dealings to sleeping with trafficked women, palling up with Saville, getting toes licked in public, falling for fake Sheiks, committing adultery while waiting to be head of a church that frowns on adultery etc.

Then along come two likeable members of the family, people to whom many outsiders can relate, and they get trashed by the establishment press and are hounded into leaving. I am interested in the outliers like Harry, Meghan and Diana the ones who left because they show this thing up for what it is.

An establishment fix rooted in a religion that the majority don't actually take seriously any more. And a royally entertaining soap opera.

Are you a member of the Church of England @Croque ? Do you believe that the King, his descendants and successors are anointed by God? If so, you are one of the few royalists who do, and good for you!

@MrsMaxDeWinter

Please continue to exercise your free will to start and contribute to any thread of your choosing. Unity of thought is not a prerequisite for discussion.
I’ve realised that if something is criticised heavily on MN then it usually has some merit. Therefore, feel encouraged.

There is a lot of non sense and misstated facts but more than that, you seem to be generally angry about something. If we start talking about the origins of all institutions, I don't think anyone will be excepted. But this is not a religious thread so I will leave it there!

You do not know which of the many points you made to which I was specifically referring. You deliberately picked out this one to try and bolster your credibility. Now, why would you do that? 🤔

To the OP

I have posted things a few things I like about Britain, and why I find the Royal Family amusing and entertaining, after telling you that I am an African woman, and your response is to tell me that I am "angry about something".

Interesting.

So glad Meghan spoke recently about the "Angry Black Woman" trope.

@Ladytreacle, have no fear, these ad hominem attacks don't phase me at all. In fact, they tell me I should keep posting.🤗

💤

Then along come two likeable members of the family

Your post was going well until this bit - they were hugely liked at first, that's certainly true, there was a lot of goodwill for them and Meghan really seemed like a breath of fresh air with so much to offer. But now they're seemingly not so likeable, in the UK anyway. I'm afraid a lot of the change in public opinion is down to things they have said themselves (so not just about the media). Maybe it started with the ITV interview in Africa where Meghan complained about her lot against a background of extreme poverty. Or maybe the stuff claiming they were single-handedly modernising the monarchy, maybe people found that disrespectful to the queen, I don't know. Since then obviously the Oprah interview went down like a lead balloon, as did Harry's early podcast interview.

It will be interesting to see whether public opinion changes now that the Queen is no longer with us. I think people feeling outraged on her behalf was a big part of it - feeling that Harry was treating his elderly grandparents badly - but I'm not so sure people will feel the same loyalty for Charles. Maybe public opinion will swing back to H+M now.

Bump as totally spot on !

They didn't just "come along" randomly either. One was an established member of the royal family whom the public had seen grow up. He married somebody from the polar opposite to his own background (on every single count) and lost himself in the process, for now at least.

Bump as totally spot on!

So true. Busy January for Rousette.

No need to stump up 18 quid though!

It will be one credit on audible. One credit is £6/€7

I might pay that much to be honest.