Politics

Bob Woodward's 'Fear' sells 1.1 million copies in its first week, a record for publisher Simon & Schuster 

Key Points
  • Bob Woodward's Trump administration tell-all "Fear: Trump in the White House" had the highest first-week sales of any book in Simon & Schuster's 94-year history.
  • "Fear" sold 1.1 million copies in its first week.
  • The book previously broke records for pre-orders and first-day sales.
The newly released book 'Fear' by Bob Woodward is displayed at Book Passage on September 11, 2018 in Corte Madera, California. The new book 'Fear' by Bob Woodward about the Trump adminstration hit store shelves today. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Bob Woodward's Trump administration tell-all "Fear: Trump in the White House" had the highest first-week sales of any book in Simon & Schuster's 94-year history, the publisher said on Tuesday.

"Fear" sold 1.1 million copies in its first week in print, e-book and audio formats. The book also broke records for pre-orders and first-day sales at Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS, selling 900,000 copies when it was released on Sept. 11.

Woodward, most known for his reporting on the Watergate scandal, wrote 'Fear' based on interviews with anonymous sources within the administration. The book depicts a chaotic White House under an uninformed and unprepared president, with top staff going so far as to secretly remove documents from his desk.

President Donald Trump has lambasted the book as a "joke" that contains "so many lies and phony sources."

"The author uses every trick in the book to demean and belittle. I wish the people could see the real facts," he said last week in a tweet.

"Fear" is currently in its 10th reprint, according to Simon & Schuster, which will bring the total number of sales to 1.2 million.