‘Fire and Fury’ sales top 29,000 in first weekend

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Customers purchase copies of one of the first UK consignments of Michael Wolff’s book on President Trump’s Presidency ‘Fire and Fury’, at Waterstones, Piccadilly on January 9, 2018 in London, England. The book is already a bestseller with over a million orders in the US alone.

Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” sold more than 29,000 hardcover copies in its first week of publication, NBD BookScan told The Associated Press.

That number, announced Wednesday and the highest overall for books last week, is likely to grow far higher in future reports. Wolff’s explosive tell-all about the Trump administration only came out last Friday and BookScan’s weekly sales run through Saturday.

“The first couple of days of sales figures aren’t giving us the full picture,” said Kristen McLean, the NPD Group’s book industry analyst. “Because of potential distribution issues related to the early release coupled with high demand, it may take a few weeks to see exactly where this book will land in comparison to other political bestsellers of the last few years.”

“Fire and Fury” has been so in demand that retailers have struggled to keep it in stock, with Amazon.com warning of delays of two to four weeks for delivery. BookScan, which tracks about 85 percent of the retail market, only counts an order as a sale once the book has been shipped.

The BookScan numbers also don’t include e-books. According to Macmillan CEO John Sargent, digital sales already top 250,000 copies, an extraordinary number for a nonfiction release and likely boosted by the scarcity of the hardcover edition. Audio sales exceed 100,000.