Former President Barack Obama sold more than 1.7 million copies in North America in the first week of “Promise Land,” roughly the same as the aggregate memoir sales of his two immediate predecessors, and the non-fiction book has had the highest value ever.
The Crown announced Tuesday that it has increased its original print copies from 3.4 million copies to 4.3 million. Sales also include audio and digital books.
The “Land of Promise,” the first of two planned volumes, was published on November 17 and sold nearly 890,000 copies in almost the first day. Of the former White House residents, only Obama’s wife, Michelle, is approaching her popularity as a writer. Released in 2018, his piece “Becoming” has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and is currently among the top 20 on Amazon.com.
George W. Bush’s “decision points” sold 775,000 copies in the first week, with Bill Clinton’s book “My Life” exceeding one million in eight days. The two presidential recollections have now sold between 3.5 and 4 million copies, and this should easily be surpassed by Obama’s book.
No piece of fiction is close to the pace of JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which sold more than 8 million copies in its first 24 hours in 2007.
