Endgame Part 6

[Mymilkshakebringsallthepapstomycar]

A turkey, absolute balls of stuffing or a right Christmas cracker? We'll let you decide. Please keep the discussion interesting, civilised and relevant - the Holiday Armadillo is lurking!

Previous thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/4960903-omid-scobie-endgame-part-5?page=1

justify the advance...to whom?

Do you have a source for actual sales to readers? As opposed to sale and return to suppliers?

Sorry, I'm not quite sure what you mean here. Do you mean sales from individual bookshops plus online retailers? Do they normally release that information? Do you have a source you normally use? If so please share!

Also, those numbers are for the 4 large English-speaking markets, so already don't include the sales for the 25 (?) other languages printed. Spare seems to have done very well. I wonder what the total book sales worldwide on the first day, week, and year really were including all 26 languages.

I'd be interested to see how Spare and other books did on global markets. If you have sources tracking these please share!

No I don’t have sources, that’s why I am asking you as you provided figures about sales for Spare contradicting the figures in the linked article. Are the sales figures you quoted based on actual sales from bookshops/retailers to consumer, or are they based on the number of books sent from the publisher to retailers?

Those numbers are from Penguin Random House and AP News, so however they calculate that, in the same way they calculate sales from the Obamas or JK Rowling, are how its sold.

You're asking if "the sales figures you quoted based on actual sales from bookshops/retailers to consumer, or are they based on the number of books sent from the publisher to retailers" - where is this normally reported? Do you have examples of where to get that information or where it has been provided before? If not, that's a strange question to ask if you can't source it yourself?

Also the sources you posted seem to contradict themselves. The article says 1.2M hardcover copies but the video says 1.3M hardcover copies in the US. So that already doesn't include audio or other formats.

Oh, in the video, the guest said she used BookScan, so I think you'd have to look at the sales per available market and then add them up.

I think this is the correct link if anyone has access Worldwide Archive - The NPD Group

i am asking you because you quoted figures for sales. Why is it odd to ask a question about where you are getting your information? Thank you for confirming that it is PRH. Who are not retailers but suppliers to other suppliers. So actual retail sales to consumers is not information you have. Thank you for confirming this.

Yes I was correcting the sales figure you originally posted. That's the only publicly available information.

I think as you've confirmed you don't have retail sources for that - all individual bookshops worldwide where they collect that sales information that is accessible to the public - so other than those sales figures that's what we have to go by.

However, according to this site, Nielsen BookScan’s 2023 full-year bestsellers chart will be published in January

Here we go @Mymilkshakebringsallthepapstomycar , found some data for you with some links. This is US-based only.

Print sales figures from Neilson USA for Jan 2023 to February 2023 (4 weeks of sales) - from stores that report to NDPBookscan, Spare sold 900,000 copies in the USA alone Prince Harry’s “Spare” One of the Fastest-Selling Adult Non-Fiction Print Books Since 2004 - The NPD Group

By April 2023, Spare had sold 1.1 million copies according to Circana Bookscan (which reports on US print book sales) First-Quarter Bestsellers (publishersweekly.com)

But Harvard/UCLA say this: "The bottom line is that only book publishers have comprehensive sales data, and they don’t usually make the information public." Where can I find detailed book sales figures or statistics? - Ask a Librarian (harvard.edu)

So that's 1.1 million sales in the USA alone as of April 2023. I think the yearly sales will be released by Jan 11, 2024. Not that this was easy to find! I'll look that up after the holidays though

For the UK, Aus, Can and the other 25 languages, they report their own market sales which need to be found and then added up.

Sorry, correction on my part Mymilk, the number is 1,208,871 hardcopies sold in the USA. I think this was the retail information you were looking for (but will be updated in Jan 2024)

"All data were provided exclusively by Circana BookScan and reflect U.S. print sales through the week ending December 9.

Spare The Duke of Sussex had not just one of the bestselling books of the year in any genre but also one of the bestselling celebrity memoirs ever. It sold 1,208,871 copies since its January 10 release date. A majority of those sold in the first few weeks of publishing." Prince Harry, Britney Spears And More Bestselling Celebrity Memoirs In 2023 (forbes.com)

What will Harry's other 3 books be about?

Being royal?

Sales were undeniably good, if the publishers were recklessly generous with their advance and lost money because of it, that’s on them. It might affect whether they’re willing to incur the costs of further publications though, so Harry may not have to produce anything else for them, and that can only be a good thing.

I would assume that there will be a declining plane of interest for future books from Harry. I think lot of people would be like me, interested enough to buy one but wouldn't buy a second. It seems that it perhaps wasn't read much by everybody who downloaded the Kindle or Audible versions, and that once people had read the hard copy they didn't want to keep it.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/prince-harry-spare-most-sold-131714291.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABC38Q48gNodYGoSkgz5P2Mon_jL5EQRxVdBnRAO2bA_2kcv5TUYegBzErika7t6er-GVPMiXnuolG-UH9jnd0WgNDyxbL7nfPztpuawzjGT-W2L1ukd8LsNEf3ZDziUbsLCO81YY087hIc-AKdNtippt2azyBoKfQA8M7VkVDWd

Yes, @Grimchmas - it was the fact that a former senior royal wrote a tell-all book, and people were keen to read the juicy nuggets. I don't know what else he has to tell now, unless he's held some stuff back.
I agree that they need to cash in now, while there's still a lot of interest, because it will diminish.

@queentim thank you for all the links, I will take a look over the post xmas lull.

Any Times readers here? I started reading a long article published yesterday evening and when I went back to it later, it had been withdrawn. Did anyone else see it? It was stating that Ashley Hansen, Archewell’s PR person, has resigned. I think she was the lady with MM on the Variety red carpet. It was also suggesting that she promoted a more collaborative approach with the tabloids via a WhatsApp group, which they used during Invictus for sharing info like MM’s fashion.

Not sure why it was withdrawn but this article also covers it
https://www.thenews.com.pk/amp/1141379-prince-harry-meghan-markle-comeback-lays-in-jeopardy-over-pr-chief-exit

The supporters of Harry always think people bought Spare because they’re interested in His Truth and came to it with a positive mindset. Very probably most sales were people wanting to read about dog bowls etc and then chucked it out. Do even supporters have this in their bookshelves? It’s a brave soul who unironically leaves Spare on display.

Ah thanks @DuchessOfPort . That’s reporting what The Times was suggesting about resignation, but as yet I don’t think it can be verified as true. I assume The Times had an issue with legalities and accuracy, so had to pull it.

Well if they do get together, they could have a chat about their relative book flops. Because, according to former Page 6 deputy editor, Paula Froelich, despite selling 1.3m copies of Spare, Harry has made a huge loss for Penguin Random House - because he has not sold enough copies relative to the huge advance.

When I read the reports I thought 1.3m seemed quite a low number. The reports at the time stated 1.4m on the first day including pre-orders.

Presumably the 1.3m figure relates to the overall sales of hardback copies but wouldn't PRH have made something from sales in other formats?

Although IIRC Amazon were offering it as part of the free audible trial fairly soon after release. Wouldn't they still have had to pay PRH some sort of commission for that?

I'm quite sure PRH will have lost out but it all seems a bit of a maze.

What will Harry's other 3 books be about?

Reports at the time had 'Spare' being released around the time of the Jubilee, a second penned by Harold to be released after the queen died, a third to be a rather worthy sounding 'wellness' book by Meghan and the subject of the fourth shrouded in mystery.

Prince Harry 'has signed deal for four books' with one released 'after Queen dies' - Mirror Online

i’m sure Ashley Hansen jumped ship. The couple’s PR has been fairly dire so she must want to get it out there that “It wasn’t my fault!” (even if it was)

An alternative view is that her card was marked the minute she tried to guide Meghan from posing too long in front of the cameras at that awards ceremony, and lip readers saw M say, “Don’t rush me.”

Thanks for the new thread and the links everyone. Very interesting as always.