Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is catnip for Mac lovers, selling 379,000 copies during its first week. Although it doesn’t compare to the 4 million iPhone 4S handsets sold during its first weekend, the book’s sales were enough to leave best-selling fiction author John Grisham in the literary dust.
According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks retail, online and ebook sales, the highly-promoted biography of Jobs sold three times as many copies as Grisham’s newest, The Litigators, but failed to beat the record sales of former U.S. President George W. Bush’s memoir, which racked up 430,000 copies.
Isaacson has made the rounds of television talk shows, promoting the 656-page look into Jobs’s largely-unknown personal life. Online, the Kindle e-reader, hardcover print and audio versions are ranked No. 1-3 on Amazon. In October, a spokeswoman for the giant Internet bookseller said trends indicated the Jobs bio could become the top seller of 2011.
The only item missing from the sales campaign is Jobs, in his iconic jeans and black turtleneck pacing a stage, talking about ‘just one more thing.’