Over 200 copies of BTS’ new memoir sold on first day of S’pore sales
More than 200 copies of K-pop phenomenon BTS’ newly released memoir were sold on Sunday, likely propelling Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record Of BTS to the top of The Straits Times’ non-fiction bestseller list this week.
While there were no queues – unlike those seen when BTS member Suga released merchandise for his solo concert in June – a Books Kinokuniya spokesman said there was “certainly a steady stream of Army” at its main store in Orchard Road, where it had set up a BTS display to coincide with the book’s release.
Army is widely used to refer to the band’s fan base, which reportedly number more than 90 million worldwide.
Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record Of BTS was released on Sunday and is the first official book about the seven-member band, which debuted in 2013.
Co-written by members of the band as well as South Korean journalist Kang Myeong-seok, the book documents the group’s meteoric rise to fame and contains scoops such as why V fought with Jimin over dumplings in the notorious “dumpling incident”.
The English version is translated by Anton Hur – who also translated the BTS-endorsed bestseller I Want To Die But I Want To Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-Hee – as well as Clare Richards and Slin Jung.
Asked how many copies of the book it has in stock, Kinokuniya responded: “We have enough stocks to feed battalions of book-hungry Army.”
But BTS’ memoir did less brisk sales over at Times Bookstores. A spokesman told ST that only four copies were sold on Sunday, out of its order of 120 copies in anticipation of the hype.
The Popular chain, which typically pushes higher numbers, did not respond to ST by press time.
In May, BTS’ memoir topped bestseller lists on the strength of pre-order sales, though there was some confusion over who had authored the then-untitled book with a huge initial print run of one million copies.
Some fans of pop star Taylor Swift had speculated that it could be the 33-year-old American singer’s memoir, citing hidden clues such as the book’s supposed length of 544 pages, with 5, 4 and 4 adding up to 13 – Swift’s lucky number.
The rumours were dispelled by publisher Flatiron Books by May 12.
Though sales are healthy, bookstores might have been slightly underwhelmed by the response from BTS fans on the first day of sales. Best-selling authors such as Colleen Hoover often clock up 300 to 500 copies in the first week of publication.
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