Sales of Sen. JD Vance’s memoir have soared to over half a million copies since Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump named him as his running mate 10 days ago, HarperCollins confirmed to Newsweek.
On July 15, former president Trump announced Vance as his vice-presidential pick for the 2024 presidential election.
The Ohio senator is the author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, a memoir detailing his life growing up in a poverty-stricken area of Appalachia, including anecdotes from family summers in rural Kentucky.
The book highlights the struggles of white working-class families and the impact of opioid addiction, abuse, and trauma. The bestselling memoir was published just months before Trump won his first presidential campaign in 2016.
Published by HarperCollins in June 2016, the book has sold more than 3 million copies.
It was adapted as a movie in 2020, directed by Ron Howard. The Los Angeles Times reported just two days after the announcement that according to data tracking firm Luminate, viewership for the film grew by more than 1,180% on Netflix.
As of this week’s rankings, which cover July 15 to July 21, the film currently holds the number 4 spot on Netflix’s top 10 films in the United States list.
In an email to Newsweek on Thursday, a HarperCollins representative said, “We’ve seen huge consumer demand for the book since the VP announcement on July 15 and estimate that we have sold more than 650,000 copies in all formats,” including audio and e-book formats.
The spokesperson also said: “We are printing hundreds of thousands of copies to fill the demand at our retail partners.” As of writing on Thursday, the book is ranked as number one bestseller on Amazon.com.
Newsweek reached out to Vance’s press team for comment via email on Thursday.
While sales are soaring in the United States, the book is not being as well received by its German publisher, Ullstein. The publisher dropped its German translation of the memoir in response to him becoming Trump‘s running mate.
Speaking to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, a spokesperson for the publishing house said it decided not to renew its licensing agreement or issue a reprint for the book because Vance represents a “demagogic, exclusionary policy.”
“At the time of publication, the book made a valuable contribution to understanding the disintegration of U.S. society,” the spokesperson said, with the magazine adding that “Vance had offered an authentic portrayal of growing up in the impoverished white working class, and he also repeatedly distanced himself from Donald Trump at the time.”
“He is now officially acting on his side and represents an aggressive, demagogic, exclusionary policy,” the spokesperson said.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
