Bookshops begin discounting Alan Joyce’s memoir as it drops from Amazon lists

Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce’s autobiography is having a slow start to sales, local bookshops say, as some begin discounting to shift copies of the manuscript faster.

Riding the Jet Stream, which had a print run of 20,000 copies, was no longer in the top 100 books sold on Amazon in Australia on Monday, but booksellers cautioned that discounts were a commonly used sales tactic even if a book was performing well and argued that one week of data was not authoritative.

In Riding the Jet Stream, Joyce discusses his upbringing and rise to the top of Qantas, a career that culminated in a series of controversial choices made during and after COVID-19 halted the nation’s aviation.

Rivis Donnelly, non-fiction book buyer for Dymocks Melbourne, said that despite the modest pace of book sales he expects it will eventually find a market. In the Melbourne CBD location of Dymocks, the book was being offered for $39.99, a $10 discount from its list price. A different bookseller in Queensland had it on a buy one, get one half price promotion.

Donnelly said the Dymocks discount, which was temporary, was commonplace for new books. “It takes a while,” he said.

Riding the Jet Stream was published on July 28. Since then, Joyce has participated in several public book events, as well as a number of individual interviews in media and on TV.

Dymocks’ Donnelly said non-fiction sometimes didn’t see an uptake in sales until well into the author’s promotion campaign. He gave the example of 2023’s Being Henry: The Fonz … and Beyond by Henry Winkler. The book posted moderate sales until well into the US actor’s visit to Australia.

One Melbourne bookseller, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said people aren’t “beating down the door to get a copy. But it’s early days yet.”

“There was a lot of interest in Joe Aston’s book [The Chairman’s Lounge] so people may eventually be interested in Joyce’s book as well,” the bookseller said.

Aston’s book, published in 2024, cast Joyce as an out-of-touch executive who courted politicians’ favour while exploiting the onset of COVID as a means for cutting costs at the airline and fattening profit margins. Joyce, instead, casts himself as a leader making tough choices.

On Monday, The Chairman’s Lounge was ranked 20th on Amazon’s list of business and investing bestsellers in the country while Joyce’s book was not present. Joyce’s book is at the top of a more specialised Amazon list of business biographies, though.

In Joyce’s tenure as chief executive, 1800 ground crew were illegally fired, and more than $1 billion in COVID credits were at one point withheld from customers before being returned. As the airline struggled back to life with nearly 2000 fewer ground staff, Joyce attracted criticism by saying that after months trapped on the ground by COVID lockdowns, they weren’t “match fit” for travel.

Joyce retired from his role as chief executive two months early in 2023.

Hardie Grant chief executive Sandy Grant, who published Joyce’s memoir, said that, while it was too early to have definitive numbers, sales at this point have gone “roughly to expectations”.

Grant said the book had a physical print run of up to 20,000 copies and was selling well once e-books and audiobooks were included in totals. The industry’s standard Nielsen data is yet to be published for Joyce’s book.

Backing Joyce as an author wasn’t difficult for Grant, who said the executive is “funny and charming and has a story to tell. He’s a classic Irish storyteller”.

David Gaunt, co-owner of Gleebooks in Sydney, said that Joyce took part in a book launch event with Fran Kelly on July 29 at the store and a lot of copies were sold then.

But if the impact of the event was disregarded, “people are buying it, but it’s not a runaway bestseller”, he said.

The event drew people who were interested in Joyce’s story, in Qantas, or in the politics of the past 10 years at the company, Gaunt said.

The Joyce autobiography is not like a “celebrity book”.

Riding the Jet Stream is selling in all three locations of Gleebooks, “but moderately”, Gaunt said.

Joyce has previously denied that his book was a response to Aston’s The Chairman’s Lounge.

Joyce’s spokesperson was approached for comment.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.