Obama book set to be best-selling presidential memoir of all time

BARACK OBAMA’S A Promised Land sold nearly 890,000 copies in the US and Canada in its first 24 hours, putting it on track to become the best selling presidential memoir in history.

The first- day sales, a record for Penguin Random House, included preorders, e-books and audio. “We are thrilled with the first day sales,” said David Drake, publisher of the Penguin Random House imprint Crown.

“They reflect the widespread excitement that readers have for President Obama’s highly anticipated and extraordinarily written book.”

The only book by a former White House resident to come close to the early pace of A Promised Land is the memoir by Mr Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, whose Becoming sold 725,000 copies in North America on its first day and has since topped 10 million worldwide since its release in 2018.

Becoming is still so in demand that Crown, which publishes both Obamas and reportedly paid around $60 million (£45 million) for their books, has yet to release a paperback edition.

As of midday on Wednesday, A Promised Land was top of the bestseller li st on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

James Daunt, the Barnes & Noble CEO, said that the superstore chain had easily sold more than 50,000 copies its first day and hoped to reach half a million within 10 days.

“So far it has been neck and neck with Michelle Obama’s book,” he said.

By comparison, Bill Clinton’s memoir My Life sold around 400,000 copies in North America on its first day, while George W Bush’s Decision Points sold around 220,000, with sales for each memoir currently between 3.5 and 4 million copies.

The fastest selling book in memory remains J K Rowling’s seventh and final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which came out in 2007 and sold more than 8 million copies within 24 hours.