HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Tuesday that just two weeks after publication, Sarah Palin's memoir has sold 1 million copies. The print run for "Going Rogue" has been increased again, to 2.8 million copies. The original printing was 1.5 million, then moved up to 2.5 million.Other million-selling political memoirs are Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope, Hillary Rodham Clinton's Living History and Bill Clinton's My Life. But did any of these book sell that many copies in just two weeks' time?
- JP
I read that both Bill and Hillary's books took a month to sell 1 million copies, after which sales dropped off. So far, Bill has sold about 1.5 million copies in 5 years, Hillary 1.3 million of 7 years. 0bama's Audacity has sold just under 1 million and it's taken 3 years to do that, even with all the hype it received during the election. Dreams from My Father has sold about 700,000, even with all the hype.
ReplyDeleteFrom doing Google searches (reliability questionable), Hillary Cinton's "Lving History" (2002)had a total print run of 1.7 million with 1.2 million hard cover copies sold to date. As for Bill Clinton's "My Life" (2004), I wasn't able to find info on the total print run but it was probably around 2.8 million, with total sales to date estimated at 2.25 million. So if Sarah sells about 2.5 million of her 2.8 million print run she will have bested Bill Clinton's record, even adjusting for the growth in US population since 2004. This would be the record for any politician. By the way, Mark Levin's great "Liberty and Tyranny" is now over 1.1 million sold and could surpass Hillary's 'Living History".
ReplyDeleteHowever, the best selling "political" non fiction book was Rush Limbaugh's "See I Told You So" (1993) which sold over 2.5 million hard cover copies. Adjusting for US population growth since then, Sarah would have to sell over 3.1 million copies to beat Rush's record. Of course Limbaugh followed this up with "The Way Things Ought To Be" in 1994 which sold 2.0 million hard cover copies. It's doubtful if anyone will ever be able to match this success.
Another record to watch is Colin Powell's book (1995) which was the number one best selling book (fiction and non fiction - hard cover and paperback combined) for three consecutive weeks. USA Today maintains this list. "Going Rogue" was number one on this list for its first week ending Novemer 22, 2009. It looks like it will be number one again for the week ending November 29 (we won't know until USA updates this list on Friday). If "Going Rogue" can be number one this week and next week, Sarah will beat Colin Powell's record as well, with four straight weeks. I can't find total sales on Powell's book but it did not exceed Bill Clinton's. While Powell's book started strong it tailed off quickly after the first three weeks.