Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, the latest title in O'Reilly's popular history series, sold just under 65,000 hardcover copies in its first week on sale, according to NPD BookScan. The title, which is the first Killing England book released since O'Reilly was fired by Fox News, performed notably poorer than the recent books in the series.
Last year, Killing the Rising Sun sold over 144,000 copies in its first week out, while Killing Reagan (2015) sold almost 112,000 copies in its initial week on shelves. The 2014 release of Killing Patton drew the most buyers to the series, selling just over 163,000 copies.
O'Reilly's plum spot as anchor of his daily show, The O'Reilly Factor, allowed him to plug his books (which he often did). The loss of his show, paired with the damage his firing (linked as it was to multiple claims of sexual harassment) brought to his reputation, has caused speculation about whether he could continue his blockbuster sales run. Outlets like the New York Times have questioned how well Killing England would sell.
The 65,000-copy sales performance put Killing England in second place on the BookScan hardcover adult nonfiction list, trailing Hillary Clinton's What Happened (which sold more than 93,000 copies in the week). What Happened and Killing England also ran one-two on the overall bestseller lists for all books sold in the week ended September 24.
