One Author Who Got a $20 Million Advance - and Why it’s Actually Good News for Lesser Known Authors
Receiving a $20 Million advance on a book deal is basically the literary equivalent to winning the lottery while being struck by lightning during a solar eclipse. It’s practically mythical.
This is literally enough money to buy a private island, and is more than the GDP of some small countries. Not chump change.
For context, the average book advance hovers around $5,000-$15,000. Which means this deal was essentially like stacking 1,300 typical authors advances together for just one person.
This is the advance Prince Harry received for his four-book-deal with Penguin Random House. The book was so successful that he earned back his entire advance (from his hardcover sales alone), with experts estimating that he made up to $27 million total on his memoir.
His book “Spare” sold over 1.4 million copies on its first day of publication, making it the largest first day sales total for any non-fiction book ever published by Penguin Random House. And, it also made it to the book of Guinness World Records being acclaimed with the title - “the fastest selling nonfiction book of all time”
Very impressive. But, not exactly surprising given that he is the literal prince of a population of over 110 million people in the UK and Canada.
But, what makes it interesting is that his overwhelming sales actually created incredible opportunities for lesser known authors. And, that’s what’s exciting.
Publisher profits = author opportunities
When Prince Harry’s memoir generated massive profits for Penguin Random House, it didn’t just line the pockets of their executives. The success of “Spare” actually helped drive the publisher’s turnover up by 13.2% to £262.3 million (around $330 Million US dollars) in 2023.
That’s real money that publishers can reinvest. And where do they put those profits? Into acquiring more books from emerging authors, funding bigger marketing campaigns for mid list titles, and taking risks on debut novels they might have passed on otherwise!
Think of it like this: when a blockbuster movie makes $500 million, the studio doesn’t just pocket the cash and call it a day. They use those profits to fund 10 smaller films, knowing that most won’t be blockbusters but hoping one might be the next surprise hit.
Then, there’s the rising tide effect
The benefits go beyond just publisher budgets also. Harry’s memoir success created what economists call a “rising tide” effect across the entire industry.
Bookstores, seeing the massive demand for memoirs, started ordering more personal narrative books across the board. Literary agents began actively seeking out memoir pitches. Editors at publishing houses started green-lighting more first-person stories.
The memoir category became hot property overnight. And when a category gets hot, publishers don’t just want the celebrity names—they actually want fresh voices, unique perspectives, and authentic stories that can capture that same magic.
Media attention = reader discovery
Here’s something most authors don’t consider: when “Spare” dominated headlines for weeks, it wasn’t just selling Prince Harry’s book. It was getting millions of people excited about reading again.
Those readers who bought “Spare” didn’t just read it and stop. They discovered they loved memoirs, or they remembered how much they enjoyed reading, or they started browsing bookstores again. Many became regular book buyers.
Every time a book achieves massive cultural success, it expands the overall reading audience. And that expanded audience benefits every author! Not just the one who went viral.
The proof is in the numbers
This isn’t just theory either - it’s totally measurable. After major celebrity book successes, publishers report increased sales across similar categories. Independent bookstores see more foot traffic.
And the memoir category saw concrete gains following prince Harry’s success. Memoir became one of only three adult nonfiction subcategories to have a sales increase in the first six months of 2023, with sales up 4.6% - a remarkable turnaround in a declining book market.
The wave of successful memoirs that followed prince Harry’s January 2023 release tells the story perfectly. Britney Spears’ “The Woman in Me,” published in October 2023, sold 1.1 million copies in its first week and became the second best-selling memoir of 2023, only behind Spare by Prince Harry. The timing wasn’t coincidental - the release of The Woman in Me was credited as a factor to help drive UK book market growth.
Even more telling is what happened to memoirs that were already published. Jennette McCurdy’s “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” which debuted in August 2022, experienced sustained success throughout the Harry-driven memoir boom. While it became a number one New York Times Best Seller initially, the book tallied 52 consecutive weeks on The New York Times nonfiction best seller list and was one of the most borrowed titles in American public libraries during 2023 and 2024.
This sustained momentum for both new and existing memoirs demonstrates exactly what publishers hoped for: prince Harry’s success didn’t just benefit himself.
It created genuine category-wide growth that lifted memoirs across the board, from megastar revelations to previously published books that found new audiences riding the wave of renewed interest in the genre.
So, while your book advance probably won’t allow you to buy a private island… You can still benefit from waves of hype like these. Because, contrary to popular belief - authors are not competing! People who love to read, love to read. So, when the market is booming in your niche, and books are going viral, it’s not a time to delay and say - “their concept is simmilar to mine, it’s already being done right now.” Because guess what, when those readers are done reading - they will want something else to satisfy that itch for more! So, it’s actually the perfect time for you to get your work out there too.
Anyways, that’s all she wrote!
-Hailey