Prince Harry is rumored to be writing a follow-up to his best-selling 2023 memoir Spare. But the royal is likely to find far less success with his second book, an expert predicts.
“Any second memoir faces an obvious problem: If you had an interesting story to tell, you would have told it in the first book,” veteran celebrity ghostwriter Joshua Lisec told Showbiz Cheat Sheet in an email.
Prince Harry’s second memoir would be ‘more of the same,’ ghostwriter says
While there’s been no official announcement of a second book from the Duke of Sussex, some have speculated that something could be in the works. Royal correspondent Cameron Walker recently told The Sun (via YouTube) that the palace might be concerned that a vengeful Harry could spill more secrets if he loses his latest court case regarding his security arrangements in the U.K. But the royal family might not have much to worry about, given how much the public already knows about the prince.
Not only is Harry’s life story “quite well-known,” Lisec said, but it’s only been a little more than two years since Spare hit shelves, meaning there’s not much new material to fill the pages of another book.
“A second memoir would be more of the same, even if it did include some new details, and would inevitably be compared unfavorably to the first book, both in quality and sales,” he added.
Rather than penning another look back at his life, Harry might want to focus on convincing his wife, Meghan Markle, to write a memoir of her own.
“Any new revelations would likely be better received in a book by Meghan Markle, rather than one by her husband,” Lisec said. That’s especially true if she spills details about her time in the royal family.
“Anything that Meghan Markle writes will likely do well if she adds some new details about controversies from her time working as a royal,” he said. “However, that particular story has already been told, so there’s only so much new to say.”
A memoir from Meghan Markle would need to be ‘brutally honest’
Lisec – a New York Times bestselling co-author who has ghostwritten over 90 books – suggested that if Meghan did put pen to paper, she’d want to focus on making her experience relatable, using it “as a launching point for a broader book that offers advice to other women who find themselves unwelcome in their husbands’ families and struggle to find their way.”
Such a book could help the former Suits star build her brand in a way that could pay off over the long-term. But she’d also need to marry self-help content with candid reflections on her own life – ones that readers haven’t already heard before in Spare, or on her podcast or Netflix show, With Love, Meghan.
“For her book to be successful, it needs to include a practical self-help element to reach a broad audience,” Lisec said. “She must be brutally honest, and the stories should be new, not ones the public has heard from her Netflix series or her husband’s memoir. These stories must come from her own life and may even predate or run parallel to other experiences so that she can be recognized as her own person, not just the wife of Prince Harry.”
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