Former President Barack Obama’s new memoir has already posted eye-popping sales—and it’s only been out for two days.
Obama’s A Promised Land, widely regarded as the most anticipated book of the year, sold more than 887,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada on its first day of release, Penguin Random House said in a news release. That’s the most first-day sales in the history of the publisher.
The memoir’s brisk sales come as good news for booksellers, who were hoping for a boost similar to the one Michelle Obama gave them two years ago with her memoir, Becoming. Barnes and Noble CEO James Daunt said sales of A Promised Land are tracking closely with those of his wife’s memoir, NBC News reports.
Penguin Random House imprint Crown had prepared for the book’s popularity, printing 3 million copies in advance. The memoir is being released in 19 different languages, the New York Times reports, including Chinese and Spanish.
The former president’s book has been greeted with positive reviews from critics, including one from Kirkus, which called the book “a top-notch political memoir and serious exercise in practical politics for every reader.”
As of Thursday morning, A Promised Land was the No. 1 bestselling book at Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
