Boris Johnson’s memoir, Unleashed, was released earlier this month in the UK. I guess it’s probably available outside of the UK, but I can’t imagine that the rest of the world was interested in BoJo’s musings. The point is that BoJo’s publisher, HarperCollins, was trying to make Unleashed into a major bestseller in the UK. They apparently believed that this memoir would do similar sales numbers to Prince Harry’s Spare. Hahaha. Interesting sidenote: if Boris had actually spilled more royal tea, I bet that would have helped his numbers. Unfortunately, the biggest headline (which was revealed weeks before the book was published) was Boris’s claim that the palace sent him to try to convince Prince Harry to stay in the UK in 2020. Boris also did himself no favors in the UK press by complimenting the Sussexes and calling them “brilliant” and a “national asset.”
Sales of Boris Johnson’s political memoir are understood to have slumped well below expectations, with the much-advertised release now on track to be overtaken by a cookbook. Despite an apparent £2m advance on the 784-page account of his time in Downing Street, Unleashed only managed to sell 42,528 copies in its opening week, far fewer than his publishers, HarperCollins, had likely predicted.
The former prime minister suffered a 62 per cent reduction in his sales lead this week, narrowly managing to cling onto the number one spot, selling just 133 more copies than Tim Spector’s The Food for Life Cookbook. Mr Johnson’s sales figures fall far short of predecessors Margaret Thatcher, who sold an estimated 120,000 copies upon the release of her 1993 memoir, and Tony Blair, who sold 92,000 copies in the first week of his.
Despite the barrage of press attention, the book’s lacklustre reception has reportedly left shops with “piles and piles” of copies, and sales figures are likely to continue to plummet.
Speaking on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, Richard Osman said: “Well, we said last week that Blair sold 92,000, Thatcher sold 120,000, that Mr Johnson had had a £2m advance, so he would need to sell probably nearer that Thatcher figure.”
“HarperCollins thought he was going to do Prince Harry numbers, and he [Harry] sold 450,000 in his first week, and he [Mr Johnson] sold 42,000, which is so far below any of the expectations they would have had. They have overpaid massively. Talking to certain booksellers, there is a lot of stock in the shops. One of the things you do [is] you send out a lot of stock. If you’ve got a book you think is going to sell a lot, you send out a lot and there are piles and piles of that book in different bookshops around the country.”
He added: “A lot of people would kill for 42,000 books, but [it’s] almost impossible not to sell that many when he’s had that many free adverts on things and he’s very, very famous. But yeah, that’s the Christmas bonuses at HarperCollins gone.”
His podcast co-host, Marina Hyde, added: “I told you that one mega central London Waterstones said to me, we sold two yesterday. I see they’ve spun it as a triumph.”
Mr Johnson’s publishers seemed outwardly pleased with the sales, posting to social media: “We are thrilled that Boris Johnson’s Unleashed is the bestselling book in the UK this week!”
As I said, he probably would have sold more if he really spilled some royal tea, especially about WTF was actually going on with QEII in her final years. Instead, he pulled his punches. His biggest royal story was so unimportant, Harry didn’t even mention the meeting in Spare. LOL. So… HarperCollins really thought Boris would do Spare-like numbers? And all of these other books out, books by James Middleton, Tom Parker Bowles and Mike Tindall, were they also expected to do Spare-like numbers? Prince Harry really is the blueprint and the inspo for everyone, isn’t he?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.