Elon Musk's Biography Has Outdone Most Major Business Contemporaries… Except This One

Elon Musk’s latest biography by Walter Isaacson has garnered significant attention in its first week of sales, but when comparing the numbers, it falls short of a notable predecessor in the genre.

What Happened: In its first week on the shelves, Isaacson’s biography of the visionary tech billionaire behind Tesla and SpaceX achieved impressive sales figures, with 92.6 thousand copies sold in the U.S. 

This remarkable accomplishment made it one of the most successful business biographies ever. However, a closer look at the numbers reveals that it didn’t quite surpass the extraordinary success of Isaacson’s earlier work.

See Also: Elon Musk’s Biographer Reveals The Main Reason People Love The Book And Criticize It

In 2011, Isaacson authored the biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, released shortly after his passing. The book achieved a monumental feat, selling more than 382.8 thousand copies in its first week, setting a bar that has proven challenging to reach for other business biographies.

Third on the list was another notable business biography, “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder, which was published in 2008 and sold 52k copies in its first week in the U.S.

Why It’s Important: Released on Sept. 12, the book, titled “Elon Musk,” is a 688-pager and chronicles the journey of the billionaire entrepreneur from his difficult childhood in South Africa to his current status as a business magnate with an expansive portfolio. 

While the hardcover edition of the book is priced at $35, for those who prefer digital reading, the eBook version is offered for $16.99 and can be purchased from various platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Google Play, and Rakuten Kobo.

For the unversed, Isaacson is an acclaimed author and journalist known for his biographies of renowned figures like Musk, Jobs, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Benjamin Franklin.

Image Credits – Shutterstock

Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next: Elon Musk And Steve Jobs Said The Same Thing To Biographer Walter Isaacson: ‘I’m Just A Working Class Kid…’