Despite what the doomsayers claim, books sell.
Zelda la Grange's Good Morning, Mr Mandela sold out within five days of its release on June 19. Penguin Books released a second print run of 35000 English copies and 12500 Afrikaans copies on July 15 and already the publisher has ordered a third print run of 34000 copies.
Frederik de Jager, the publishing director of Penguin Books, said though sales figures had not yet been confirmed, "our projections indicate that we may [sell] numbers approaching 100000 books in total before the year is out".
La Grange's memoir recounts her time with the late former president Nelson Mandela.
De Jager said Penguin had had an unprecedented amount of requests from a number of publications wanting to use extracts from the book and interview La Grange.
He added: "We have never seen anything like it, and the requests have not yet abated."
In its first week on the shelves, Good Morning, Mr Mandela replaced Tim Noakes' The Real Meal Revolution as the number one bestseller in South Africa.
The Real Meal Revolution, which promotes Noakes's controversial high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, has sold 100 000 copies so far.
But that is nothing compared to former Springbok coach Jake White's In Black and White, which has sold 210 530 copies to date, and John van der Ruit's Spud series, which has sold more than 500 000 copies. The Fifty Shades trilogy by EL James sold 500 000 copies locally.
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