After a false start in Spain, numerous big TV interviews and a smattering of leaks, the day is here.
Prince Harry's much talked about and much anticipated autobiography Spare hits shelves today.
It's being called an explosive memoir.
The claims that have surfaced so far certainly indicate it will be.
Eager buyers in London got their hands on it at midnight UK time.
And today, it goes up on New Zealand bookshelves amid significant interest in pre-orders.
Over 400,000 copies flew off the shelves on the first day. (Source: 1News)
Auckland's libraries have also been preparing for some time.
They too are reporting remarkable interest ahead of today's launch.
The library network will have a few dozen books to start, and already, many hundreds of people are set to be waiting for one.
"It's pretty significant, in fact quite huge and it has really surged in the last week," Auckland Council's head of library services Catherine Leonard told 1News.
To start there are 60 regular hardback copies of Spare ordered across the city's library network.
But by yesterday there was almost 1000 hold requests.
Requests are also being put on the audiobook version and copies in large print.
All up, almost 1300 hold requests so far.
"So this is quite, quite something," Leonard said.
"We sometimes see around a thousand holds on a popular fiction title but for a biography it's pretty much a standout demand," she said.
But not quite unprecedented.
The last autobiography to spark similar interest was Michelle Obama's Becoming in 2018.
"The really unusual thing is that title is still in our top 20 most borrowed books, so after four years it's still in very high demand," Leonard told 1News.
She says it will be interesting to see if Prince Harry's Spare has similar longevity.
"I think what's interesting about this one is it's been quite a short timeframe really from the announcement that came in July that Harry would be writing this book."
News coverage of the book's contents seems to have piqued a lot more interest, she said.
"More than half the holds that have been placed have been placed just in this last week so that's an indication of the level of interest that's kept growing."
"This one's quite significant."
And Leonard's advice for those who've made a hold request?
"It might be a bit of a wait but you'll get it eventually," she said.
"But we think people will read this book fairly quickly... take it home and read it straight away."
By the numbers
Hold requests at Auckland libraries the day before the launch of Spare:
- 972 holds for the regular book
- 262 holds of a large print edition
- 51 holds for the audiobook
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