James Comey's A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week, becoming the #1 bestseller in all formats and accounts, as well as the bestselling English-language book in the world, according to Flatiron Books president Bob Miller and publisher Amy Einhorn, who also noted that the book has already gone to press several times. There are now more than a million copies of the book in print. The impressive sales numbers run counter to some early negative press from right-wing sources that had contended the book was not performing up to expectations.
"In a sign of how fraught and politicized the conversation surrounding the book has become," the New York Times wrote, "Amazon limited reviews of A Higher Loyalty to Amazon customers who have purchased the book through the site, presumably to prevent trolls and cheerleaders who haven't read the book from skewing the ratings."
Comey is currently on a sold-out, 10-city tour in support of the book and has had numerous media appearances. This week he will do a CNN Town Hall and will appear on Fox News, where he will be interviewed by anchor Bret Baier.
The controversy "piques people's interest," Anne Holman, manager of the King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, told the Wall Street Journal. "They want to see what it's all about. And in this case, the gloves have come off." Noting that the store quickly sold out of the title and has since reordered it seven times, Holman added: "People are looking for answers, or ways to understand what's happening in our country."