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Barack Obama’s ‘A Promised Land’ Sets Sales Record

The 44th President is doing numbers for his publisher.

Barack Obama is securing his post-presidential bag by breaking sales records for his new memoir.

Released November 17, Obama’s new memoir, A Promised Land, set the record for largest first-day sales total for any book ever published by Penguin Random House.

The publisher announced the numbers this week and claims the 44th President’s book sold more than 887,000 units in all formats and editions in the U.S. and Canada on its first day of publication.

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When it comes to the full week, 1,710,443 units in all formats were purchased for the same regions, which is also a Penguin Random House record.

“There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one,” Obama says, in part, in an Instagram caption in announcing his latest work. “I’ve spent the last few years reflecting on my presidency, and in A Promised Land I’ve tried to provide an honest accounting of my presidential campaign and my time in office: the key events and people who shaped it, my take on what I got right and the mistakes I made, and the political, economic, and cultural forces that my team and I had to confront then—and that as a nation we are grappling with still.” 

He continued: “In the book, I’ve also tried to give readers a sense of the personal journey that Michelle and I went through during those years, with all the incredible highs and lows.”

A Promised Land is the first volume in a planned two-book series Obama plans to release. A release date for the second book has not been made public.

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