Prince Harry’s Memoir Delay ‘Makes Sense’ to Avoid Holiday ‘Competition’

The announcement that Prince Harry’s memoir will see it’s publication delayed until January 2023 “makes sense” as post-holiday competition for the release would be “less severe,” a publishing expert has told Newsweek.

On Thursday, publishers Penguin Random House announced that the highly anticipated memoir will be released globally on January 10, 2023 under the title Spare.

The project had initially been given a tentative “late 2022” release date with speculation of delays circulating in the press for a number of months.

A press release distributed on Thursday read: “Spare takes readers immediately back to one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.

“For Harry, this is that story at last.

“With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”

The prince himself said at the time of the project’s announcement that he was writing the memoir, “not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become,” and was “excited for people to read a firsthand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”

Since then the book has dominated headlines as experts have speculated as to what revelations Harry, who stepped away from his working role within the British monarchy, will make about the institution, his relationship with family members and the media.

“Prince Harry’s memoir is such a highly anticipated release that it becomes almost irrelevant when he releases it,” Rutger Bruining, CEO and founder of leading memoir-writing service StoryTerrace, told Newsweek.

The news that the release will come after the lucrative holiday sales period for books may come as a surprise to some, however, as Bruining points out, the book’s high public profile will see interest at any time of year.

“Perhaps, the book would perform marginally better if released nearer the holiday period, but the late queen’s recent passing adds another dimension to the memoir which is well worth the wait until the new year,” he said.

“The project has been highly anticipated and obscured in relative secrecy—every new update on it generates sensationalist headlines, which keeps the discourse about the book fresh at any point.”

By choosing to publish after the holiday rush, during which the majority of new titles hit shelves, Harry’s memoir will face less competition in the memoir genre.

“In January, there is often an uptick of people releasing diet and health books, as well as self-help and business titles,” Bruining explained.

“Although Prince Harry’s memoir does not fit those remits, the anticipation behind it means that it will perform well no matter when it is released. Furthermore, it makes sense to release in January as it’s post-holiday and the competition for a memoir of this nature is going to be less severe as most publishers focus on ‘New Year-New You’ self-help related titles.”

A push from the “late 2022” expected release date also means that Harry’s project will not debut in direct competition with another of Penguin Random House’s star signings—Michelle Obama.

The former first lady’s memoir titled Becoming enjoyed enormous success as the number 1 bestseller which reportedly sold over 14 million copies worldwide.

Her second work titled The Light Inside, will be published on November 15, in time for Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday shopping season.

When asked if by separating the publication of two of their biggest author’s works, Penguin Random House would be helping the sales performance of both books, Bruining responded: “Yes, definitely!”

“It is a tactical move to release the two titles a few months apart, meaning that both Michelle and Harry’s memoir will enjoy separate publicity cycles.

“Also, given Harry’s stature, his book is almost impervious to release timings and the market considerations that impact most authors. Even if the book is panned by critics, the public’s fascination with Harry and the Royal Family is strong enough to make the book pretty much critic-proof from a sales perspective.”

Since stepping down as a working member of the royal family in 2020 and moving to the U.S, Harry has given a number of interviews in which he has revealed intimate details about his life behind palace gates, no more strongly than during his sit-down discussion with Oprah Winfrey in 2020.

These revelations, including that he felt unsupported by the royal family and household during his marriage as well as an unnamed royal making racially insensitive comments about the skin color of his future children with Meghan Markle, have led many to anticipate bombshell allegations and embarrassments for the monarchy from his memoir.

As well as taking part in interviews, the prince has signed multi million dollar deals with the streaming giant Netflix to produce film and television content, and with Spotify to produce podcasts.

When asked why Harry may have chosen memoir as a medium for telling his life story and not these other areas in which he is already involved Bruining said:

“Memoirs are everlasting. Having seen thousands of projects come through StoryTerrace, I can tell you first-hand how much weight a memoir holds in terms of immortalising a life story. The physicality of it is one thing, being able to flick through the pages of one’s life story makes it more personal in a way.

“TV programs and films often have creative input from large teams,” he continued, “this means that subjects often don’t feel well-represented, whereas the process of memoir writing is more intimate. In a book, the subject signs off on every word, which future generations and historians will then be able to then consider more carefully.”

It has been widely reported that Harry has worked with Pultizer prize winning journalist and author J.R. Moehringer to put his memoir together.

Thursday’s announcement from Penguin Random House also revealed that he had recorded an unabridged audiobook version of the project to be released alongside the hardback and digital versions. This will allow listeners to hear the prince’s own life story in his own voice.

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