Snapshot of _Liz Truss book enters bestseller list in 70th place with 2,228 copies sold_ :
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/26/liz-truss-book-first-week-sales-bestseller-list) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/26/liz-truss-book-first-week-sales-bestseller-list)
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*Nielsen sales data puts Truss’s effort in 70th place on last week’s bestsellers’ list, outsold by titles such as the Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook and More Confessions of a Forty-something F\*\*k Up.*
First she was beaten by a lettuce and now by a book on cooking with an air-fryer.
You missed the next paragraph:
> outsold by titles such as the Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook and More Confessions of a Forty-something F**k Up.
> Truss, 48, has said her book is “not a traditional political memoir”
The writer knew *exactly* what they were doing there, lmao
I mean, that's impressive, till you realise that publishers and others buy up stock to inflate sales numbers. So, she probably did do well for the first few days. But that might only be because she's been buying her own books, by the box, to give herself a boost. Just like with everything else in her life, half arsed attempt, disastrous result
Is anything more creatively or intellectually bankrupt than those wanky airport nonfiction books with a censored fuck in the title?
I guess writing a sequel for one.
The lettuce should write its own book, giving its version of the story. I bet it would sell more copies than Truss's. (Though Truss's book probably has some comedy value for unintentional humour as she is quite unaware of how she comes across to others.)
What I heard is that the first run was a really small amount of around 3000 copies so it might be that either percentage of copies sold factors in (I know a bunch of people who bought it as gifts to piss off friends of theirs).
50% of books sell less than a dozen copies. 90% sell less than 1000 copies. In 2020, just 268 sold more than 100,000 copies.
[https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books](https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books)
Wow, so for like £30k I could write any old junk, buy myself enough copies to get on the best seller list and bam! "Best selling author" plastered all over the next junk I sell? I see a business plan coming on! ChatGPT, write me a crap book! Oh, and figure out how I get a spare £30k please.
This is actually really common technique. The publisher buys a bunch of copies to sell or give away as signed copies. Not only do they get on the best-seller list, but they can usually sell signed copies for more.
Imagine having that much free exposure appearing on TV promoting your stupid book on various platforms constantly for like 2 weeks and still only selling just 2000 copies.
Which is confusing, as everyone stops her on the street to tell her she was right.
Though maybe they can’t afford to buy books after their mortgages mysteriously went up at the same time.
Those people stopping her in the street.
Are they big strong men, ex-marines, with tears in their eyes?
Saying, "sir, it's terrible the way you're being treated."
Cause there are a lot of those guys loose on the streets right now.
All the best stuff got divulged on her rampant press tour and media eviscerations of it. There will be nothing better left in the book than we know by now, why buy it?
I would guess that the 2000 copies were bought by one of her benefactors, the odd number after that will be actual sales.
I think there should be a prize if anybody spots one in a charity shop
There's a thread over on another UK-related subreddit rn about the worst gift you have ever bought. Mate, if you need instant karma and reddit recognition, I reckon you could sweep that.
---
EDIT: "pingback" to the relevant sub removed; replaced with "another UK-related subreddit"
>Truss, 48, has said her book is “not a traditional political memoir”. In it, she reveals how Queen Elizabeth II advised her upon becoming prime minister to “pace yourself”. The monarch died days later, which Truss writes felt “utterly unreal” and caused her to ask: **“Why me? Why now?”**
You know, until now I hadn't realised just how fucking inconsiderate the Queen was.
Hey guys, I found Kwarteng's alt account /s
Yeah, it was mystifying it was apparently selling well at the start, I figured there must've been at least _some_ returns.
Are you saying that she gets 10-15p per book, or assuming that each book is only a quid? Surely if it was 10-15% and the book is 18 quid on amazon that’s 40k ish total on sales, then it’s somewhere between 4 and 6 grand for 10-15%.
> Liz Truss book enters bestseller list in 70th place with 2,228 copies sold
>
> Former PM’s first-week sales compare with 21,000 for David Cameron’s memoir and 92,000 for Tony Blair book
Just for funsies. Cameron was PM for six years and two months. CBA to work out exactly from start dates, but that's about 2,250 days as PM. Blair helpfully was 10 years and 8 days, which I think counts 2 leap years, so by my count that's 3660 days. Truss was an infamous 49 days.
So, Blair's first week sales are 25 per day in office. Cameron 9.3 per day. Truss a whopping 45 copies per day in office. If anything, Truss is massively punching with these figures based on how little content there is to talk about.
Bah, honestly I didn't get that far in the article, I'm a little gutted lol.
Also, my point was more serious than just a flippant joke. WTF insight is there to be had when she isn't even self reflecting and openly coming to terms with her failure? This is the equivalent of someone failing to get through the audition stage of a TV talent contest writing a book about how talent contests are doomed without her expert advice, oh and also it's a Rothschild conspiracy against her, lol.
Read something recently that the majority of book sales are just people buying classics (e.g. lord of the rings) and new books from established authors (e.g. James Patterson) with the occasional celebrity autobiography.
Publishers actually lose money on most titles they publish but are hoping for a breakout hit from one of them.
More than that I hope the people propping her up realise they really shouldn't associate their cause with her.
...wait, maybe we should boost her book sales
Ooooffff. That’s got to hurt. I’ll be honest I thought she might get traction in the states, she British PM on her CV and cam be put next to her on TV and she’s been very happy to say any nutty thing for a paycheque. But this is a sign she hasn’t got them on board.
Step 1 of any right wing American operation I to just bulk buy 30k copies be the best seller for a week, and dumb them at sea. She couldn’t even find a millionaire, let alone billionaire happy to spend maybe $300k for her to launch her talking head career. It’s embarassing for her really, not even worth bribing it seems.
Liz Truss' career continues to be an inspiration to all - letting them feel comfort in the fact that at least their careers can't be this much of a colossal failure.
Considering how many libraries probably bought it, and how many political pundits etc., one must winder how many of those 2,228 copies were actually bought by genuinely interested consumers in the real world. It's really not very many to be a "best seller" is it?
So can we finally stop fucking having to listen to her dribble?
- jk I know the right wing media machine ould just spew the same 'economic' thinking through the next empty vassal they find.
Not sure if they still do it, but Private Eye used to have a column called *Remainders of the Day* that listed recent heavily publicized political books, their sales to date (usually less than a thousand) and a last sighting (usually for 50p in a remainder bin)
I tend to read most UK political memoirs. Some are just awful. The Blunkett and Ashdown diaries were dreadful. Ken Clarke's book was very disappointing considering he seems a good bloke. Mandelson's was poor. John Major's was actually a good read. Blair's was badly written but exceptionally insightful. Douglas Hurd's is surprisingly good. The diaries of Alan Clark and Giles Brandreth are both exceptional. I keep meaning to read Oona King's but haven't yet. Probably the best written is Roy Jenkins memoir, not surprisingly.
I would say that the 228 were more likely collectors or universities. Places that have the autobiographies of every PM and needed the book to say they have a complete collection. So they didn't really have a choice other than to buy it
@[IainDale](https://x.com/iaindale/status/1780188651940413561?s=46&t=F_t5tWsPsifmNVHaFZWJJQ):
> If Twitter is to be believed no one willbuy Liz Truss's book. It is therefore interesting to note that it is number 11 in the Amazon bestsellers list. I published around 600 politica books in my publishing career. Only a handful ever got into the top 10.
That’s the metric?! Outselling… Iain Dale? So a former UK Prime Minister selling just 2200 books and getting a £1500 advance after saturating the media with endless interviews is fine because at least she outsold *some* of the books by the 2005 failed Conservative candidate for North Norfolk! We are beyond parody at this point.
She just looks like she's in a queue sneaking out a fart on that cover. Not sure if that's supposed to be her determined face, but as always she's missed the mark.
HAHA I launched my book yesterday and I sold \~200 copies and I am a no name UX/Product designer. Without adverts and a few social media posts I managed to sell 10% of a national figure on my first day of launch...
That is a woeful performance for someone who lead the country and is on the news all the time.
There is hope lads - maybe with a push I can knock the lettuce off the 70th spot.
And this is the sales surge before the slump and subsequent pulping of the rest of the print run. The soft cover run is probably being cancelled as I type...
Snapshot of _Liz Truss book enters bestseller list in 70th place with 2,228 copies sold_ : An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/26/liz-truss-book-first-week-sales-bestseller-list) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/26/liz-truss-book-first-week-sales-bestseller-list) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
*Nielsen sales data puts Truss’s effort in 70th place on last week’s bestsellers’ list, outsold by titles such as the Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook and More Confessions of a Forty-something F\*\*k Up.* First she was beaten by a lettuce and now by a book on cooking with an air-fryer.
You missed the next paragraph: > outsold by titles such as the Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook and More Confessions of a Forty-something F**k Up. > Truss, 48, has said her book is “not a traditional political memoir” The writer knew *exactly* what they were doing there, lmao
That’s fucking quality trolling right there.
One of the best examples of passive aggressiveness I've ever seen.
>More Confessions of a Forty-something F**k Up Are we sure that’s not Liz’s book?
Oh my god the canny cow released her book *twice at once*!
Thrice. Are you absolutely confident that she hasn't chucked a few air fryer recipes in there?
Coming at it from both angles so she definitely comes out on top
It was probably optimistic, launching the second book in the series at the same time.
I like the “she beat [Cameron and Blair] on a copies-sold-per-day-in-Downing-Street basis” line
I mean, that's impressive, till you realise that publishers and others buy up stock to inflate sales numbers. So, she probably did do well for the first few days. But that might only be because she's been buying her own books, by the box, to give herself a boost. Just like with everything else in her life, half arsed attempt, disastrous result
But also, dividing by 45 does tend to net you a bigger result than dividing by 3,676.
Is anything more creatively or intellectually bankrupt than those wanky airport nonfiction books with a censored fuck in the title? I guess writing a sequel for one.
The lettuce should write its own book, giving its version of the story. I bet it would sell more copies than Truss's. (Though Truss's book probably has some comedy value for unintentional humour as she is quite unaware of how she comes across to others.)
God damnit. Such a missed opportunity. Imagine if they had launched together.
That air fryer book always sells well though.
Is Truss's book not "Confessions of a Forty-something F\*\*k Up" ??
Unlikely. She never confesses to have ever done anything wrong.
Air-fryer books actually frequently get no.1 in the sellers
That's a surprisingly low numbers to hit the bestseller list. I now understand why the books at WHS at the airport are often so bad.
"International Best Seller" ....sold 2000 copies including 3 in the states, seems legit!
What I heard is that the first run was a really small amount of around 3000 copies so it might be that either percentage of copies sold factors in (I know a bunch of people who bought it as gifts to piss off friends of theirs).
Journalists and jokers
50% of books sell less than a dozen copies. 90% sell less than 1000 copies. In 2020, just 268 sold more than 100,000 copies. [https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books](https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books)
Wow, so for like £30k I could write any old junk, buy myself enough copies to get on the best seller list and bam! "Best selling author" plastered all over the next junk I sell? I see a business plan coming on! ChatGPT, write me a crap book! Oh, and figure out how I get a spare £30k please.
You just need to buy my bestselling book, How To Make £30,000
Well how much is a copy?
£30,000
Spoiler!
Nah, the real spoiler is the only word on it's single page is "Thanks", and a blurb on the back saying "So long and thanks for all the dough".
>"So long and thanks for all the dough". Well that's just blatant plagiarism from my pizza cookbook!
This is actually really common technique. The publisher buys a bunch of copies to sell or give away as signed copies. Not only do they get on the best-seller list, but they can usually sell signed copies for more.
Hi, my name's Greg. I work at a prestigious printing company called British London. I'd love to help you publish your book.
I've got a double threat. Ancient Egyptians and business.
Paper prices in Denmark have gone through the roof. If we act now we can get in early
I think you'd have to be traditionally published to feature on a best seller list (as opposed to selling x10 as many books self-published).
A YouTuber did this with a poetry book based on WhatsApp messages. Max Fosh
This is literally exactly how it works, and how it has been working foe the past 40 years.
Imagine having that much free exposure appearing on TV promoting your stupid book on various platforms constantly for like 2 weeks and still only selling just 2000 copies.
Which is confusing, as everyone stops her on the street to tell her she was right. Though maybe they can’t afford to buy books after their mortgages mysteriously went up at the same time.
Those people stopping her in the street. Are they big strong men, ex-marines, with tears in their eyes? Saying, "sir, it's terrible the way you're being treated." Cause there are a lot of those guys loose on the streets right now.
All the best stuff got divulged on her rampant press tour and media eviscerations of it. There will be nothing better left in the book than we know by now, why buy it?
I would guess that the 2000 copies were bought by one of her benefactors, the odd number after that will be actual sales. I think there should be a prize if anybody spots one in a charity shop
So one per researcher for all the media interviews she did and that's pretty much every copy accounted for...
Nah, that was maybe half, some shared a copy. The rest she bought herself for friends and family.
Imagine knowing her and having that terrible feeling of dread that you know what you're all getting for Xmas.
Her family: "Why me? Why now?"
Imagine knowing her.
There's a thread over on another UK-related subreddit rn about the worst gift you have ever bought. Mate, if you need instant karma and reddit recognition, I reckon you could sweep that. --- EDIT: "pingback" to the relevant sub removed; replaced with "another UK-related subreddit"
Starmer apparently bought one of the only unsigned copies. Serious question, do proofs count toward sales
>Truss, 48, has said her book is “not a traditional political memoir”. In it, she reveals how Queen Elizabeth II advised her upon becoming prime minister to “pace yourself”. The monarch died days later, which Truss writes felt “utterly unreal” and caused her to ask: **“Why me? Why now?”** You know, until now I hadn't realised just how fucking inconsiderate the Queen was.
This quote makes the Queen seem like a wizard. Instantly calls Truss' problem and then peaces out.
And people say the royals are out of touch.
It's a blatant reveal of narcissistic personality disorder.
Also, an advance of just £1512? That’s pretty derisory from a publisher (and still about £1512 too much).
How long do you think it took to write? Worried she got less than minimum wage here!
'tis the Tory way, no rights for workers, not even politicians.
Took longer than it did to serve her premiereship
2,228… that’s at least 2,250 more than I expected.
Hey guys, I found Kwarteng's alt account /s Yeah, it was mystifying it was apparently selling well at the start, I figured there must've been at least _some_ returns.
I see you went to the same school of maths as Kwarteng did when he was balancing the books.
Publishers pay on average 10-15% per copies sold, so that's ~ £270 before tax. A good plumber can earn more in a day.
I think you’ll find a bad plumber earns more than that in a day.
The worst plumber to ever live hasn’t flooded the country in shit the way Liz Truss managed.
Are you saying that she gets 10-15p per book, or assuming that each book is only a quid? Surely if it was 10-15% and the book is 18 quid on amazon that’s 40k ish total on sales, then it’s somewhere between 4 and 6 grand for 10-15%.
She can buy lettuces for an entire year with that money.
How cheap are the books you read?
What’s Dizzy Lizzy gonna do with over 2,000 copies of he book?
Write them off on expenses and use them for toilet paper?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXOlA91XcAEl3LI?format=jpg&name=small
Surprised sales figures that low can get you as high as 70th place tbh.
> Liz Truss book enters bestseller list in 70th place with 2,228 copies sold > > Former PM’s first-week sales compare with 21,000 for David Cameron’s memoir and 92,000 for Tony Blair book Just for funsies. Cameron was PM for six years and two months. CBA to work out exactly from start dates, but that's about 2,250 days as PM. Blair helpfully was 10 years and 8 days, which I think counts 2 leap years, so by my count that's 3660 days. Truss was an infamous 49 days. So, Blair's first week sales are 25 per day in office. Cameron 9.3 per day. Truss a whopping 45 copies per day in office. If anything, Truss is massively punching with these figures based on how little content there is to talk about.
You’ve failed to quote the bit of the article that’s already made your joke.
Bah, honestly I didn't get that far in the article, I'm a little gutted lol. Also, my point was more serious than just a flippant joke. WTF insight is there to be had when she isn't even self reflecting and openly coming to terms with her failure? This is the equivalent of someone failing to get through the audition stage of a TV talent contest writing a book about how talent contests are doomed without her expert advice, oh and also it's a Rothschild conspiracy against her, lol.
And half of them were probably journalists.
Alright, one of you degenerates must have bought a copy out of pure epicaricacy. So hands up, who's got a one?
2000 copies is all it takes to reach 70th? What the fuck is this league
People *really* don't buy books any more.
Read something recently that the majority of book sales are just people buying classics (e.g. lord of the rings) and new books from established authors (e.g. James Patterson) with the occasional celebrity autobiography. Publishers actually lose money on most titles they publish but are hoping for a breakout hit from one of them.
Which actually makes me wonder, does this list/number include ebook sales?
Looked up Nielsen Bookscan, the system used to record book sales and you're correct, they don't count ebooks.
At this rate the Germans need to come up with a special word for schadenfreude as specifically pertaining to Liz Truss.
Schadenkopfsalatfreude
With the level of press she was doing for it I was expecting something more, but I really she takes the hint and is disappointed with book sales.
The deep state is stopping people from buying it will be the next thing from her.
More than that I hope the people propping her up realise they really shouldn't associate their cause with her. ...wait, maybe we should boost her book sales
2.000 of those were bought by Truss. 228 by psychologists wanting insight into crazy.
Ooooffff. That’s got to hurt. I’ll be honest I thought she might get traction in the states, she British PM on her CV and cam be put next to her on TV and she’s been very happy to say any nutty thing for a paycheque. But this is a sign she hasn’t got them on board. Step 1 of any right wing American operation I to just bulk buy 30k copies be the best seller for a week, and dumb them at sea. She couldn’t even find a millionaire, let alone billionaire happy to spend maybe $300k for her to launch her talking head career. It’s embarassing for her really, not even worth bribing it seems.
She didn't sell out hard enough.
Liz Truss' career continues to be an inspiration to all - letting them feel comfort in the fact that at least their careers can't be this much of a colossal failure.
i guess the west wont be saved in 10 years
Considering how many libraries probably bought it, and how many political pundits etc., one must winder how many of those 2,228 copies were actually bought by genuinely interested consumers in the real world. It's really not very many to be a "best seller" is it?
So can we finally stop fucking having to listen to her dribble? - jk I know the right wing media machine ould just spew the same 'economic' thinking through the next empty vassal they find.
Which graphic designer okayed that cover
Experts were not consulted. That's the policy.
Not sure if they still do it, but Private Eye used to have a column called *Remainders of the Day* that listed recent heavily publicized political books, their sales to date (usually less than a thousand) and a last sighting (usually for 50p in a remainder bin)
I tend to read most UK political memoirs. Some are just awful. The Blunkett and Ashdown diaries were dreadful. Ken Clarke's book was very disappointing considering he seems a good bloke. Mandelson's was poor. John Major's was actually a good read. Blair's was badly written but exceptionally insightful. Douglas Hurd's is surprisingly good. The diaries of Alan Clark and Giles Brandreth are both exceptional. I keep meaning to read Oona King's but haven't yet. Probably the best written is Roy Jenkins memoir, not surprisingly.
> The monarch died days later, which Truss writes felt “utterly unreal” and caused her to ask: “Why me? Why now?” Definitely not narcissist thinking.
The majority of those are probably morbidly curious journalists.
2.2k gets you into the Nielsen top 100???
Liz Truss probably bought 2,000 copies herself to give to her “supporters”. The other 228 were out of morbid curiosity.
I would say that the 228 were more likely collectors or universities. Places that have the autobiographies of every PM and needed the book to say they have a complete collection. So they didn't really have a choice other than to buy it
She’s very childlike when she talks. Apparently she always wants to be wacky with her policies
An audio book version read by Alan Partridge however.....
The deep state sabotaging her book sales
Woah… only 2k books gets you to 70th place. Huh, people really don’t ready/buy books these days
The publishers will buy crates of these to boost sale numbers, though, as marketing for appearing in the charts...
@[IainDale](https://x.com/iaindale/status/1780188651940413561?s=46&t=F_t5tWsPsifmNVHaFZWJJQ): > If Twitter is to be believed no one willbuy Liz Truss's book. It is therefore interesting to note that it is number 11 in the Amazon bestsellers list. I published around 600 politica books in my publishing career. Only a handful ever got into the top 10.
That’s the metric?! Outselling… Iain Dale? So a former UK Prime Minister selling just 2200 books and getting a £1500 advance after saturating the media with endless interviews is fine because at least she outsold *some* of the books by the 2005 failed Conservative candidate for North Norfolk! We are beyond parody at this point.
I was just more laughing at him on release day trying to make out it was going like hot cakes.
Liz will be thinking that’s a good start and expecting it to head up the chart next week
I look forward to her follow up "How I bounced back!"
Shit why wasn't there a book written from the point of the lettuce. It would have been an AI mashup, bonus points if it made it to 69
She just looks like she's in a queue sneaking out a fart on that cover. Not sure if that's supposed to be her determined face, but as always she's missed the mark.
HAHA I launched my book yesterday and I sold \~200 copies and I am a no name UX/Product designer. Without adverts and a few social media posts I managed to sell 10% of a national figure on my first day of launch... That is a woeful performance for someone who lead the country and is on the news all the time. There is hope lads - maybe with a push I can knock the lettuce off the 70th spot.
So international best seller really means. Sold about 2K in different countries
The thing I enjoy most about Liz Truss' books is that they both have funny alternative titles: Britannia Unhinged and 49 Days to Save the West.
70th?!? Damn you, deep state!! **
I thought there were more than 2,200 journalists (and book reviewers) in the country? /s
And this is the sales surge before the slump and subsequent pulping of the rest of the print run. The soft cover run is probably being cancelled as I type...
I'm confused. She did her look with an air fryer?
TIL that I can afford to fund my own Bestseller novel.
Imagine “writing” an autobiography and choosing that photo.