If you haven't heard that Bill Clinton's
My Lifeis already breaking sales records, chances are you've had a Rip Van Winkle episode or just landed from Mars. Still, as the column of record for bestseller scores, we think that some of the numbers bear repeating. While it's a sure bet that Clinton will lead the bestseller chart next week, kudos to this week's top nonfiction bestseller, Tim Russert's Big Russ and Me. Clinton's mega-numbers will count for PW's July 5 bestseller chart. Figures released by publisher Knopf for day one sales alone would thrill any writer if they represented a full year's sales. MyLife sold more than 400,000 copies on the first day; the in-print total is 2.57 million; first printing was 1.5 million. Knopf president Sonny Mehta noted that the one-day sales tally "is a record-breaking figure for a work of nonfiction." (In fiction, the one to beat would be Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which sold about five million copies in the first 24 hours, according to Scholastic.) The Random House Audiobook also had a record laydown: more than 315,000 copies, with 35,000 sold the first day (10 times the typical audio top seller, according to RH). The large-print edition also had, according to Knopf, the largest laydown in history, with about 100,000 copies. Clinton's media and tour schedule is packed and early stops have exceeded expectations. His first TV appearance was 60 Minutes, a full hour with Dan Rather (the first time the program devoted the entire show to one person). It was the most watched show that evening—15.4 million viewers, reported Nielsen. Clinton's bookstore signing tour is scheduled through July.
