Politics

Wolff Says He Sold 1 Million Copies of His Book — The Numbers Don’t Back That Up

Benny Johnson Columnist, Viral Politics
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Michael Wolff’s controversial new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump White House,” hit shelves last Friday.

The book drew ire from the White House and critics alike for it’s mysterious sourcing and blatant factual inaccuracies. However, the juicy anecdotes from Trump’s first year in the White House, true or not, were irresistible to those in the media. The book was the talk of Washington for days and Received a full garage from the president and his administration, who called the book “garbage” and “trash.”

But did anyone actually buy it?

As with many things in the book there are two answers that question: Michael Wolff’s version of the facts and reality.

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Wolff brags in a recent interview that he had sold a “million copies,” as of the close of business hours Monday.

“I’m going around saying, ‘It’s just a book,’ but it has become something so much larger,” he claimed, citing Trump’s attacks on the book and his failed attempt to prevent it from being published.

Like much of Wolff’s work, that number doesn’t isn’t really true.

According to BookScan, the industry leader in tracking the point of sale for books, Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” sold 29,000 copies as of Wednesday.

Those sales still make it the highest selling nonfiction book on the market and are likely to continue rising through the first weekend. The book may also have been limited by the number of copies printed. Additionally, the 29,000 number does not account for ebook sales which, according to the Associated Press, have surpassed 250,000.

D.C. political authors have pointed out that even if you combine electronic and hardcover, it would be very unlikely that Wolff’s assessment of one million copies is correct.

You can get Michael Wolff’s book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” over at Amazon.