Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir, Spare, is unlikely to be championed by independent bookshops because of how heavily it has been discounted by larger retailers, according to booksellers.
Spare will be published on 10 January by Penguin Random House, with the recommended retail price set at £28. However, it is already being offered at a discount by Waterstones, Foyles and Amazon, all of which are selling it for £14. Even at preorder stage, the book is in the Top 10 in Amazon’s bestsellers list.
Amanda Truman from Truman Books in Pudsey said that while the shop would be stocking it, “as an independent bookshop it’s hard to get excited about a book when you see chain bookshops advertising it at 50% off within minutes of the publication announcement”.
“We will not be championing a book that publishers allow to be sold at a cheaper price than we can buy it for,” she added.
The Corsham Bookshop in Wiltshire will be ordering “one or two” copies of Spare for stock. “I am not sure how many we will sell, mainly because it is being heavily discounted by Amazon and we don’t discount books,” said owner Janet Brakspear. The shop “won’t be doing anything special” for the release, she added.
That said, Brakspear thinks one benefit of Spare being released in January is that the month is “usually a pretty quiet time in the book trade – except for the usual get fit/get thin/change your life new year kind of books”.
“So it’s nice to know there is something that will generate interest to bring people into the shop,” she said.
Hazel Broadfoot of Village Books in Dulwich agreed, saying: “January is a fairly quiet period in the publishing calendar, so big books released then tend to get a lot of attention and can do very well. I don’t think it will hinder sales of other books and anything that brings people into bookshops in January is a bonus.”
Charlie Richards from Bookbag in Exeter said Spare “looks to be huge”, though the shop does not “tend to choose books solely on bestseller potential – hopefully making sure readers don’t miss out on more under-the-radar reads”. Bookbag will order in the book if it is requested by customers, she said.
Transworld, the division of Penguin Random House that is publishing the book in the UK, said it had no comment to make on the book’s discounts.
A spokesperson for Waterstones said the retailer “does not strongly focus on discounting, but on certain books, such as Spare, we need to compete against heavy online discounting”.
“In an effort to provide our customers with a well-balanced offer, Waterstones features a small but thoughtfully curated selection of half-price books, including some pre-order titles,” they explained.
The spokesperson said customer reaction to the book’s release date “suggests that Prince Harry’s memoir is highly anticipated and will be on many reading lists come January”, adding that Waterstones’ staff “expect high interest to be sustained in the run-up to, and after, publication and will continue to support the upcoming publication through all our channels.”
