Taylor Swift is receiving backlash after selling more than 814,000 copies of her Eras Tour Book over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
After earning the biggest publishing launch of the year, some upset X users questioned how the book managed to sell so many copies, despite being littered with mistakes.
‘Once again, with her, it’s NEVER about quality or talent. This book, riddled with errors, is a fitting reflection of her career… TRASH but commercially successful,’ one hater wrote.
Another tweeted: ‘She really brainwashed a bunch of people to buy anything she puts out like of course it’s all going to to be s**t.’
A third fired: ‘Mediocrity sells and she’s proof of that.’
‘Proof that with enough hype and a solid marketing team, even the most disastrous efforts can hit the bestseller list. Talent may be optional, but controversy and salesmanship? Absolutely essential,’ a fourth added.
Taylor Swift is receiving backlash after selling more than 814,000 copies of her Eras Tour Book over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend
Others, however, defended the pop star and praised her for ‘really stimulating the economy everywhere she goes.’
The criticism comes one week after the 14-time Grammy winner, 34, released the book exclusively through Target for $39.99
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Taylor's ERRORS Tour book! Singer accused of a 'cash grab' after fans spot mistakes in $40 release
The self-published book, which documents the blockbuster two-year tour which finishes this month, exclusively went on sale in Target in the US on Friday and will be available to purchase on the singer’s UK merch store on December 7.
In the US, the book is being sold for $40, with many Taylor Swift fans queuing for hours to get their hands on a copy.
Almost immediately after purchasing the book, some Swifties began to post about the amount of spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, blurry pictures and upside down pages in it.
Some Swifties even took to TikTok to complain about the slew of errors, which have left many questioning if it was edited at all before it was published.
One Taylor fan pointed out that in the concert date index page there is a missing tour date for Toronto, while another’s book was printed upside down.
Meanwhile someone else noticed that some of Taylor’s concert outfits were sketched in the wrong color, while others were never seen before.
After earning the biggest publishing launch of the year, some upset X users questioned how the book managed to sell so many copies, despite being littered with mistakes
‘Once again, with her, it’s NEVER about quality or talent. This book, riddled with errors, is a fitting reflection of her career… TRASH but commercially successful,’ one hater wrote
Another tweeted: ‘She really brainwashed a bunch of people to buy anything she puts out like of course it’s all going to to be s**t’
Swiftie Emma took to her TikTok @emermore7 to reveal she started queuing at 5am to get her hands on the book at Target.
In the clip, which racked up over 700,000 views, Emma revealed she was ‘disappointed’ with the book.
She captioned the post: ‘I know I’m not the only one disappointed with the Eras Tour book, but I haven’t seen anyone else talk about the glaringly obvious grammatical errors and clunky sentences within the pages.
‘I make this video with peace, love, and a general frustration about how easy many of these problems could have been fixed with one more set of editing eyes.
‘This book just had so much potential, and with a little tweaking it could have been absolutely spectacular.’
Pointing out the errors, Emma said: ‘When I got home and starting flicking through the book I was actually blown away by the amount of grammatical mistakes, so many in fact that I am seriously questioning if this book was even edited.
‘If there are certain spelling mistakes that are really distracting it really takes me out of the reading experience and I really really felt that with this book.
‘Proof that with enough hype and a solid marketing team, even the most disastrous efforts can hit the bestseller list. Talent may be optional, but controversy and salesmanship? Absolutely essential,’ a fourth added
Other defended the pop star and praised her for ‘really stimulating the economy everywhere she goes’
‘If you are paying $40 for a book wouldn’t you expect it to not have this many errors? Wouldn’t you expect the pictures to not be cut off? Wouldn’t you expect the pictures to be crisp and clean and not blurry?
‘I don’t know what happened, I don’t know if they were on a deadline or what. The grammatical problems that I have found should have been fixed right away.’
Many people rushed to the comments in disbelief at the inconsistencies – with some claiming it was strange because Taylor is known for her incredible writing skills.
One person wrote: ‘I don’t understand how this could happen, her entire public persona is crafted around being a thoughtful and meticulous writer.’
Another said: ‘Did Taylor even get a chance to look at this book herself?!? I feel like that’s clearly a NO… otherwise it would’ve been a lot better and not as many mistakes! She always writes so meticulous and well… it doesn’t seem like her style of speech!’
Meanwhile George Mansour revealed some of the writing on his Eras Tour book was ‘cut off’
Some Swifties even took to TikTok to complain about the slew of errors, which have left many questioning if it was edited at all before it was published; as seen in a video above, one fan pointed a missing ‘T’ in the word ‘trying’
Meanwhile someone else noticed some of the concert outfits were sketched in the wrong color, while others were never seen before
Someone else said: ‘As an editor my skin is crawling at all the issues. 100% cash grab.’
A fourth said: ‘Y’all didn’t notice that the photos in the book are screenshots from the eras tour film? It’s crazy that she didn’t even take separate pictures for the book.’
Another suggested: ‘I think there was a deadline… I honestly feel like they could have waited and done it properly after the eras tour ended… it’s kinda crazy to release this before the eras tour ended. Felt rushed.’
Meanwhile George Mansour revealed on his TikTok @thegmansour that some of the writing on his Eras Tour book was ‘cut off’.
He added: ‘I can’t tell if this is a stylistic choice or an error.’
Elsewhere he pointed out some spelling mistakes and an extra comma after Poland in the tour date index.
Many people rushed to the comments in disbelief with some claiming it was strange because Taylor is known for her incredible writing skills
He captioned the post: ‘I’m going to need everyone to open up their Official Taylor Swift The Eras Tour Book and let me know if it looks like mine.
‘The lettering on some pages looks like it was cut off. Also, a few spelling and grammatical errors. What errors did you find? Does your book look like this?’
Even though the book doesn’t go on sale in the UK for another few days, it has already sprung up on resell sites including Vinted and eBay for hundreds of pounds.
One seller is flogging a single book for £180 – six times the asking price – using eBay’s Buy It Now feature, advertising it only with a single stock image.
Another is flogging 10 for a whopping £509.62 – or best offer – with an extra £32 for postage from the United States.
The book is not yet available in the UK – so sellers will either have needed to visit the US themselves or could be selling fraudulent copies.
On eBay, some books are being posted from the United States for an extra £30 – the entire cost to purchase the book through official means.
Announcing the 256-page book back in October, the Love Story singer, 34, promised it would be ‘filled with my own personal reflections, never-before-seen behind the scenes photos, all the magical memories you guys brought every single night’.
It features over 500 images, including performance photos from every era as well as exclusive rehearsal photos and behind-the-scenes images of instruments, costumes, set pieces and designer sketches used throughout the tour.
Taylor’s book is available exclusively at Target and flew off the shelves on Black Friday
It has been published by none other than ‘Taylor Swift publications’ – meaning the star created a company specifically for venturing into the industry.
Sellers are calling their offers ‘exclusive’ as the book is ‘not yet sold in the UK’ saying ‘limited copies’ are available and calling it the ‘ideal Christmas present’.
Some have only used a stock image of the book and have limited reviews.
Despite the high prices and risk of them being counterfeit, hundreds have expressed interest in the items, ‘watching’ them on eBay, or adding them to favourites on Vinted.
One states it’s been imported in from the US and has six bids, selling for £67 at time of reporting.
Meanwhile a book with a very similar cover calling itself ‘100% unofficial’ has popped up on sites, bearing a strong resemblance to the official version.
In the new book, Taylor revealed how she came up with the concept of her record-breaking tour.
In the introduction to the tome, the Bejeweled singer wrote that she was working on Midnights when the idea came to her.
However, no matter how many books are sold at Targets across the country, it won’t be eligible for the best seller’s list (seen in Toronto on November 14, 2024)
‘I’ll never forget the call when I explained the concept for the Eras Tour to my team,’ she began, adding that normally she would have embarked on a tour in support of Midnights.
‘We’re going to call it the Eras Tour and each album will have its own chapter, its own world,’ the Karma hitmaker wrote.
Taylor revealed that she had ‘fallen back in love’ with her vast catalog of music while recording the Taylor’s Versions of them.
This was what inspired her to create the Eras Tour, where she planned from the inception to ‘fully commit to each era, musically, stylistically and aesthetically’ with the ‘longest, most ambitious show’ of ‘time capsules.’
The tour was designed to ‘celebrate both new fans and fans who have been there since day one.’
But, she wondered ‘HOW on earth’ she would play 45 songs live – which averages out to three hours and 15 minutes of singing and constant motion each night.
Upon its release in the US last Friday, Swifties queued through the night and even skipped Thanksgiving dinner to be among the first to get their hands on the book
The Bad Blood songstress wrote that she gave ‘absolutely everything’ to her audience, and promised herself to ‘be physically and mentally tougher than ever before’ and ‘more disciplined and committed to [her] health, fitness and stamina.’
She gushed, ‘Thankfully, I’m surrounded by my incredible crew, band, singers and dancers who all matched my dedication to the massive scale and challenges of this show.’
The Eras Tour debuted in Glendale, Arizona on March 17, 2023. After 149 dates in five continents, the tour will wrap in Vancouver, Canada on December 8.
Taylor’s book is available exclusively at Target and flew off the shelves on Black Friday.
However, no matter how many books are sold at Targets across the country, it won’t be eligible for the best seller’s list.
‘A title sold exclusively by a single vendor does not qualify for tracking,’ the Times confirmed to Esquire.
Upon its release in the US last Friday, Swifties queued through the night and even skipped Thanksgiving dinner to be among the first to get their hands on the book.