Fellow bestselling author Richard Osman – author of hit crime novels including The Thursday Murder Club – previously used his own knowledge of the industry to estimate how much he believes Harry has been paid.
Speaking previously on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, Osman said: “The book that Harry wrote, it’s impossible to overestimate how much money that has made.
“I mean, it’s been one of the most successful books. The fastest selling non-fiction book of all time. I’ve done some back of the envelope calculations because I like to.
“I know what you get paid per book. Got a $20million advance. Thing with an advance is, you get paid in advance, $20million in that case, you do not make a penny until your publisher makes back their $20million.
“And once they’ve made back their $20million, and there’s all sorts of sliding scales about how that works, what they get, what you get, once you’ve made the $20million, then you get your royalties.”
Ranking up his knowledge, he then added: “I think – and his book has not come out in paperback yet. So this book is purely hardback. I reckon he’s made $26-27million.
The paperback version of Spare was offically released in October 2024 – 21 months after the original hardback release.