Britney Spears’ Memoir Achieves Remarkable Debut with 1.1 Million Copies Sold in the U.S. in Its First Week

Britney Spears‘ memoir, titled “The Woman in Me,” achieved remarkable success in its first week of release in the United States, selling over 1.1 million copies across all formats, according to an announcement by the book’s publisher, Gallery Books.

These early sales figures position Spears’ memoir alongside some of the most popular celebrity autobiographies in recent years. In comparison, Prince Harry’s memoir sold 1.6 million copies in the United States within a similar timeframe, and Mary Trump, former President Donald J. Trump’s niece, sold 1.4 million copies when her memoir debuted in 2020.

Spears and her team adopted a distinctive approach to promote the book. Instead of engaging in traditional face-to-face interviews like Prince Harry, she opted for a unique strategy. She shared sneak-peek excerpts and emailed quotes to People magazine and leveraged her vast social media following to create online buzz around the book’s release.

Like other recent bestsellers, the 1.1 million sales figure for Spears’ memoir includes purchases of the audiobook, which was narrated by actress Michelle Williams, with Spears herself reading a brief introduction.

In response to the impressive sales, Spears expressed her gratitude, stating, “I poured my heart and soul into my memoir, and I am grateful to my fans and readers around the world for their unwavering support.”

“The Woman in Me,” spanning 275 pages, delves into Spears’ memories of her upbringing in the small Louisiana town of Kentwood, her early experiences on “The Mickey Mouse Club,” and the hard work she put into her first album after signing a record deal at just 15 years old. The memoir’s most noteworthy revelations revolve around her past relationship with Justin Timberlake, during which she revealed she had an abortion after both agreed they were too young to become parents. The book frequently revisits the challenges of living under intense public scrutiny, particularly concerning her body, relationships, and parenting her two sons.

Moreover, the memoir offers the first detailed account of Spears’ 13-year conservatorship, which her father, James P. Spears, was granted in 2008 amid a custody dispute and her public struggles. The legal arrangement was terminated by a judge in 2021. In her memoir, Spears describes an adulthood marked by security personnel administering her medications and imposing parental controls on her iPhone.

Kristen McLean, an industry analyst for Circana BookScan, noted that Spears’ memoir seems poised to exceed one million in print sales in the United States this year, a milestone reached so far by only one other adult nonfiction title—Prince Harry’s “Spare.” The book’s success is indicative of a strong holiday book market, driven in part by a series of popular nonfiction titles, including Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk, Michael Lewis’s book on FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and Jada Pinkett Smith’s memoir.