Social-media buzz saying that Britney Spears’ new memoir, The Woman in Me, has beaten Prince Harry’s world record for fastest selling non-fiction book of all time may be premature, as official data from booksellers has yet to be released after its October 24 release.
Spears’ highly anticipated book topped pre-sale charts on Amazon in the build-up to publication, and a viral post on X, formerly Twitter, said that pre-sales already reached the millions.
Michelangelo Di Battista/Sony/RCA via Getty Images/RAMONA ROSALES/PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Posted by the account @BritneyTheStan on October 19, the now-viral post read: “Britney Spears has already broken the Guinness World Record for fastest selling non-fiction book of all time, which was set by Prince Harry with 3 million copies in the first week. #TheWomanInMe has already sold 9 million in pre-orders alone.”
The post has been viewed over 566,000 times on the social-media platform and received in excess of 6,400 likes. It has been reposted to other sites.
Britney Spears has already broken the Guinness World Record for fastest selling non-fiction book of all time, which was set by Prince Harry with 3 million copies in the first week. #TheWomanInMe has already sold 9 million in pre-orders alone. pic.twitter.com/TCbCJ871HH
— Britney Stan ✨ (@BritneyTheStan) October 19, 2023
So far, there has been no official bookseller data released about The Woman in Me, including a pre-order figure. The total of 9 million can be traced back to an October 19 episode of celebrity commentator Heather McDonald’s podcast Juicy Scoop.
During an on-air discussion with comedian Brad Wollack, McDonald recounted a conversation that allegedly took place with Spears’ agent, Cade Hudson, who divulged the pre-sale figures.
“Listen I had a conversation with Cade Hudson,” McDonald told listeners. “He is a man and he is her manager and I talked to him at Craigs about a month ago and he told me this book the pre-orders were up to like—I want to say and I’m just going to say I don’t, I can’t verify this complete memory—but I want to say the pre-orders were up to 9 million. That’s what he told me… Maybe he predicts it will make 9 million…”
Newsweek approached McDonald, Hudson and publishers Simon & Schuster via email for comment.
Like Spears’ memoir, Prince Harry’s Spare was one of the most highly anticipated literary releases of all-time, generating global press coverage around its bombshell revelations and behind-palace-walls insight.
After its publication on January 10, 2023, Penguin Random House issued a press release revealing that Spare had sold 1.4 million units across all formats in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. It was the largest first-day sales total for any book previously published by the company.
Three days after its release, the Guinness Book of World Records announced that the figure reported by Penguin Random House made Spare the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time. It beat the previous record held by former U.S. President Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, which sold 887,000 copies on release day in 2020.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.