Flop or clever business play? Earl Spencer’s new book on Diana is already 'half price' just hours after release

A new book on Princess Diana is out, and it didn't get the roaring response that was expected. But is there a business strategy behind it? Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Earl Spencer's memoir about his sister, went on sale in the UK on Tuesday, September 22, and within a day of its release, the price of the book was reportedly slashed to half price.

Swan Song: Diana, My Sister went on sale in bookshops across the UK, including Waterstones. While Diana and her story have always piqued public interest, why has the book been sold at half price? The book release comes after it rocked the British monarchy over the sensational headlines that were the allegations against Diana's ex-husband and now King, Charles III.

Diana's memoir slashed to half price on the day of release

Earl Spencer's memoir about his late sister Princess Diana has been making headlines for a while, but it didn't receive much attention soon after it hit the stores. Copies of the book are available across the country and in Kensington, including in bookstores such as Waterstones Piccadilly, which is the largest bookstore in Europe.

According to Metro, the £28 hardcover books were marked with a 'half price' red sticker just hours after the book's release. Not only in stores, but it has also been available at half price online. The book is now being sold for £14 online. However, this strategy of selling the book at half price is a way to keep sales going.

The book has been published by Penguin in various countries and translated into 12 languages.

What's the business strategy behind half price?

However, selling the book at half price could be part of a business strategy. As Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, told the PA news agency, it is common for retailers to offer a highly anticipated hardback at half price on release. The same strategy was used when Prince Harry's memoir Spare was released in 2023 and was also marked at half price. The autobiography went on to become the UK's fastest-selling non-fiction book ever, selling 400,000 copies on its first day. Retailers often use such discounts to attract buyers for the anticipated bestsellers.

Spencer's shocking revelations, and the Palace responded

This is the first time when Earl Spencer has spoken out since Diana's funeral in 1997. In the book, he revealed that days after Diana's death, Charles allegedly told him: ''Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.''

In the excerpts of the book, Spencer describes a phone conversation with King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, following Diana’s fatal car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. In the book, he claims Charles lost his temper during a debate over funeral arrangements, specifically over whether young Princes William and Harry should walk behind their mother's coffin.

“Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped. I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death”. He also made a shocking remark,“Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough”.

On this, the Palace, for the first time, broke the royal family's tradition of maintaining silence over the revelation made about the family. In an official statement released, a palace spokesperson said, “Grief can cloud reason and distort memory. It is unhelpful to revisit events from this period based on recollections filtered through decades of emotion.”