Britney Spears‘ memoir The Woman in Me is big. But it’s not the biggest.
First week sales reports indicate the memoir has sold 1.1 million copies in the U.S. alone through its first week. The sales figures include pre-orders, print sales, e-books, and audiobooks. Print accounted for 418,000 copies, according to Circana, which tracks the publishing market.
“I poured my heart and soul into my memoir, and I am grateful to my fans and readers around the world for their unwavering support,” Spears said in a statement released Wednesday by Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.
The Woman in Me was released Oct. 24. On the day of publication, Spears posted on Instagram that her book had become “the highest-selling celebrity memoir in history.”
So far, it’s not even the highest selling memoir of 2023. Not helping the cause is Spears’ refusal to do interviews in support of the book.
The Woman in Me is lagging behind Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, which came out in January and sold 1.6 million U.S. copies in its first week. Also selling well are former President Barack Obama’s A Promised Land and former first lady Michelle Obama’s Becoming.
One things Spears’ memoir can do that Harry and the Obamas can’t: Spears is getting a strong boost to streams and sales across her music catalog, according to Luminate, a music and entertainment analytics company.
In one day last week, from Monday to Tuesday, Spears’ catalog jumped 18.2% in on-demand streams, and 36.8% in album sales. The numbers continued to climb over the following days. According to Luminate, her U.S. streams increased 24% over the previous week — from 16 million to 19.8 million; her album sales were up 61.4% and digital sales 49%.
The audiobook version of The Woman in Me, read by Oscar-nominated actor Michelle Williams, is the fastest-selling audio release in the company’s history, according to Galllery Books. The publisher did not back that hype with a specific audio sales figure.
