Jobs bio pre-sales rival Harry Potter
Pre-sales for Steve Jobs' biography in Hong Kong are rivalling that of the last Harry Potter novel, say major retailers ahead of the book's worldwide launch on Monday.
'I can't tell you how many have been sold, but it's just as tremendous as the last Harry Potter,' said Norman Fung, manager of the Swindon book store in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The Commercial Press has booked it as one of the biggest products in its autumn lineup, while Page One and Dymocks expect solid sales.
Written with former Time magazine managing editor Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs is built on more than 40 interviews with the entrepreneur, as well as with more than 100 family members, friends and adversaries.
'Although Jobs co-operated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published,' writes the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster. 'He put nothing off limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against.
'Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair,' the publisher says in its description of the book. 'But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system.'
After the Apple co-founder died on October 5, Simon & Schuster moved up the release date by a month. Sony Pictures Entertainment has reportedly reached a deal to buy film rights from Isaacson.
Swindon and Commercial Press will accept pre-orders for the English edition until Sunday for HK$240. Page One will sell the English edition at a discounted price of HK$269.60 from Monday.
The Chinese edition will be available at a pre-order price of HK$160 at Commercial Press, and HK$200 thereafter.
