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Omid Scobie recruits ‘Sussex Squad’ influencers to promote his new book Endgame
Author is using NDAs and a non-traditional marketing strategy to whip up interest in his new work, which is published on Tuesday
Omid Scobie sent advance copies of his new book on the Royal family to favoured social media influencers who were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
The author, whose book Endgame is published on Tuesday, is understood to have masterminded his own marketing strategy – with publishers required to ensure that every decision is signed off by him personally.
Eschewing traditional practices, he opted to send the 400-page book to a select group of “Sussex Squad” bloggers who have long proved supportive.
One of them, who identifies herself only as Kaiser, the head writer for a blog called Celebitchy, revealed that she had signed an NDA and read it at the weekend.
She wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the Windsors came in for a “mauling”.
She tweeted: “One of the big takeaways, for me, is how none of the left-behind Windsors can manage their way out of a paper bag.”
The various social media influencers and bloggers who were sent the book pre-publication will be expected to give it a lucrative push online when it is published on Tuesday.
The US-based arm of Scobie’s publisher, HarperCollins, is understood to have largely left UK colleagues in the dark about the pre-publication plan.
The author’s effort to secure favourable coverage began with an interview in the American magazine People, which tends to shy away from controversial or negative subject matter.
He then gave an interview to Paris Match, which published extracts of the book in French, and to The Sunday Times.
Scobie is expected to appear on ITV’s This Morning on Thursday and has also recorded a piece for Good Morning America, on the US network ABC, for which he is a regular contributor.
A review published in The New York Times said that Endgame was “devoted to setting the record straight on petty slights against the Sussexes”, including the now infamous row between the Duchess of Sussex and the Princess of Wales about who made who cry at a bridesmaid dress fitting.
“The tabloids have rightfully been accused of pitching one royal bride against another, and so it jars when Scobie, whose tone throughout is one of moral high ground, employs a similar tactic,” the newspaper added.
Scobie brands the institution “tone-deaf, racist and financially reckless”, according to the review, rubbing salt into wounds by adding that it has gone downhill since Charles became King.
“When Queen Elizabeth II was at the helm she managed to keep much of it at bay,” he writes.
By comparison, the Duke and Duchess were “in a good place” and paid no attention to negative headlines.
The Duke is said to be working on something in the “military space”, while the Duchess, according to a source, is “building something more accessible… something rooted in her love of details, curating, hosting, life’s simple pleasures, and family”.
The Times’s review said that “Harry and Meghan emerge glowing with goodness, like extras from a Ready Brek ad”, while the Independent gave it three out of five stars and said that Scobie was “unfailingly sympathetic to the Sussexes – he does not hold them accountable for anything”.
However, it adds that the book is “crammed with gripping gems about the bilious backbiting among the Royal family” and describes it as a “pacey, well-written account of where the modern monarchy could be heading if it doesn’t adapt and appeal to a new generation”.