Omid Scobie’s book Endgame sold just 6,448 copies in its first five days in Britain despite a storm of controversy – and has now fallen to 215 on Amazon’s ‘bestsellers’ list
Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame sold just under 6,500 copies widely in Britain in its first five days, despite a firestorm of publicity – and has now fallen to 215 on Amazon’s ‘bestsellers’ list.
The battle against the royal family has been widely pilloried, even by normally sympathetic media such as the New York Times, which described one chapter as “like a press release concocted by ChatGPT.”
Derided as ‘not that different from what Harry presented in ‘Spare’, most reactions to the book focused on the Dutch-language edition, which named two family members accused by the Duchess of Sussex of ‘unconscious bias’.
Yet even this controversy did little to contribute to its success: Nielsen estimated UK sales figures for the first five days at 6,448.
By contrast, Scobie’s first book about the Sussexes, Finding Freedom, sold 31,000 copies in its first five days, while Harry’s autobiography Spare sold 467,183 copies – making it the fastest-selling non-fiction book since records began in 1998.
Omid Scobie was interviewed about his new book on ITV’s This Morning last Thursday
A copy of Omid Scobie’s book Endgame was on display in a bookshop in London last Friday
Endgame has now dropped to 215 on Amazon’s bestseller list, down from 174 yesterday
Endgame has now dropped to 215 on Amazon’s bestseller list, down from 174 yesterday.
The book is now in the table behind activity book Things To Do While You Poo On The Loo and children’s titles such as Dormouse Has a Cold, the Beano Yearbook, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Stick Man.
It also includes biographies of Britney Spears, Matthew Perry and Chris Kamara; and cookbooks by Mary Berry, Rick Stein and Tom Kerridge.
In the same US Amazon list today, Endgame ranked 312th – below How to Catch a Dinosaur and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Amazon says its listings are a “good indicator of how well a product sells overall,” but “do not always indicate how well an item sells compared to similar items.”
The book’s declining performance comes despite a huge amount of media attention and TV interviews Mr Scobie conducted for the BBC and ITV in Britain and ABC in the US.
The author has also given interviews to publications including The Times, Evening Standard, Independent, Tatler, People, Elle.com and Paris March.
Meanwhile, the book was not prominently displayed in London’s oldest bookshop, Hatchards on Piccadilly – with only one copy set aside to order, reported The guard.
The newspaper added that around 14 copies were stacked on a table at the entrance to nearby Waterstones, but there was ‘limited interest’ there too.
Scobie is widely described as Meghan Markle’s mouthpiece, but neither she nor Prince Harry have yet spoken out in defense of the royal family over particularly damaging allegations of racism.
The Dutch translation of the book is named after Charles and Kate, because the royal family is said to have asked what color Prince Archie’s skin could be before he was born.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend church at Sandringham in Norfolk yesterday
King Charles III is expected to consult Prince William this week to discuss their response to the storm, after Buckingham Palace said it is “considering all options” when it comes to a response.
The Sussexes have not commented publicly on the race, but a source close to Meghan said “it was not leaked to Mr Scobie by anyone in her camp.”
Yesterday it also emerged that the Dutch edition of Endgame quoted a source close to the Sussexes who branded William ‘heartless’ – another inflammatory passage not included in the British version.
Referring to claims that the Prince of Wales had secured a flight to Balmoral without Harry as the Queen lay dying, the translation quoted the following source: ‘It was callous to deny him the opportunity to go to Scotland to say goodbye his grandmother. This was not the time to be petty.”
A ‘family source’ also claims that William ‘deliberately ignored’ Harry when the Queen died and ‘didn’t want to help him’, according to the Dutch edition.
It said: ‘He was and still is angry because Harry revealed private matters… He finds that unforgivable.’
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with their children Archie and Lilibet in December 2021
The original ‘racism’ claim was made in the Sussexes’ infamous 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey
William, Harry, Meghan and Charles speak together at Westminster Abbey in March 2019
The Dutch version also refers to the king’s ‘cash for honours’ scandal last year, with a ‘source’ saying that ‘people within the institution are concerned that ‘more stories will follow’.’
None of these claims appeared in the English version, The Sun reported on Sunday.
It comes after Meghan admitted under oath that she authorized a senior aide to brief Scobie about his previous book about the Sussexes, called Finding Freedom.