In 2017, Barack and Michelle Obama agreed to a single, multi-book publishing deal with Penguin Random House estimated to be worth $65 million range. Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming was a critical and commercial success the following year and has continued selling strongly.

Judging from reviews, Barack Obama has now held up his end of the
publishing partnership. A Promised Land (Crown), the first of two memoirs covering his two terms as US president, went on sale on Tuesday WITH three million copies in the first printing

“A Promised Land is expected to dwarf all the other big books we’ve seen already this year,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.

“For many indie bookstores who have not shared in the unexpectedly strong sales year that 2020 has turned out to be, Obama’s book is a potential lifesaver,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “Although, it should be noted that Amazon and Barnes & Noble are deeply discounting the book.

“We always knew Barack Obama was a great writer—he’s written numerous critically acclaimed, bestselling books, including The Audacity of Hope in 2006, and I think it is fair to say that book was Obama’s platform upon which he would ascend to the presidency,” Albanese says.

“Reviews have pointed out just how honest and unflinching and well-written this new book is. While Americans struggle with a raging pandemic, that this isn’t just the book the publishing industry needs right now, it could be the book the country needs – indeed, the world needs.”