SOLD OUT: MALAYSIAN MAVERICK - Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times by Barry Wain

Shops can’t cope with demand for Wain’s Mahathir bio

By Lee Wei Lian

May 05, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 — Bookshops in KL have sold out the controversial book on Tun Mahathir Mohamad written by former Asian Wall Street Journal editor Barry Wain due to high demand.

Checks with Kinokuniya and Borders revealed that they ran out of stock for the book — titled “Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times” just a week after it first went on sale.

Both Kinokuniya and Borders have had to place orders for fresh stock.

MPH at the busy MidValley mall said that they are also almost sold out and had to send some of their own stock to branch outlets.

A Kinokuniya spokesman said that the first 20 copies they received didn’t even make it to the display shelves as the books were shipped to customers who had made pre-orders.

The bookshop has ordered another 30 copies and said that the book’s distributor only has limited stock on hand.

He noted however that the book’s price — RM89.90 — could potentially deter some customers.

Wain told The Malaysian Insider that from his understanding, the 500 copies held by Malaysian customs officials in Port Klang have now been distributed to book shops in Malaysia.

Additional supplies have been rushed into Malaysia from Singapore and Hong Kong. He added that a fifth reprint, the sixth print run overall, is being contemplated.

Wain said that 12,500 copies of the book have been sold so far in Asia and Australia plus a few hundred more in Europe and the United States.

Some 11,000 of the total were sold in Singapore. The rest of the 1,500 copies were purchased by customers in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei and Australia. 

“Of course, hundreds, perhaps even a thousand or two of the 11,000 copies sold in Singapore have been bought by Malaysians or taken into the country for Malaysian readers,” said Wain.

The controversial political biopic was approved for sale by the Home Ministry only in April, months after it was launched in Asia in December last year.

The book became famous due to its assertion that as much as RM100 billion in funds were squandered under Mahathir’s watch via grandiose projects and corruption and the fact that even as a fierce US critic, he had signed a secret military deal with the US.

According to news reports, the book was on the bestseller list in Singapore for several months. Wain is also planning a book reception in KL later this month.