Ruby Tui during the Japan leg of this year's Sevens World Series. Photo / Photosport
Ruby Tui during the Japan leg of this year's Sevens World Series. Photo / Photosport
It was the best advertising for a book any publisher or author could ask for.
Young female rugby fans at Eden Park holding their copy of star winger Ruby Tui’s autobiography above their heads streamed around the world for millions of viewers to see.
The raw and emotional book penned by Tui had already spent its first three weeks at number one but after Saturday night’s Black Ferns’ 34-31 victory against England’s Red Roses, the book bloomed again.
Fans scrambled to get a copy of Straight Up with many calling bookstores begging to have one popped behind the counter in fear of missing out.
A fan holds up Ruby Tui's book at the Black Ferns Thank You Aotearoa - Celebrate #LikeaBlackFern event at Te Komititanga Square, Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday 13 November 2022.
Dozens of fans held them out for the charismatic player to sign at Te Komititanga Square in central Auckland on Sunday afternoon where the Black Ferns gathered again to thank their fans.
Demand for the book was so high on Sunday publishers Allen and Unwin urgently ordered more copies.
“We’re urgently reprinting in order to meet the enormous demand, especially with Christmas not far away,” said Abba Renshaw from publishing house Allen and Unwin.
“It is so satisfying to see so many people supporting Ruby’s book. When we signed it, we thought it had the potential to be our biggest book of the year and after the sensational game on Saturday, I think we can safely say it will be.”
The official Nielsen BookScan NZ statistics are not out until next week but if anecdotal evidence is anything to go by the book will be back up at number 1 again after dropping to number 2 for the past two weeks.
“We’ve heard that book sales surged after the RWC final on Saturday night, with some stores selling as many copies on Sunday as they did the whole of the previous week,” Renshaw said.
“People have been calling bookstores to put copies on hold so they don’t miss out, with some people buying multiple copies.
“We’ve been inundated with bookstores contacting us to reorder this morning at an unprecedented level.”
Ruby Tui's book Straight Up is being reprinted to meet unprecedented demand. Photo / Supplied
The book - an open and honest account of a childhood marred by drugs and domestic violence - almost didn’t happen.
Tui said she was hesitant, nervous, and uncomfortable telling her story. She had other people to consider because it was also the story of her Pākehā mum Marion Mouat and Samoan-born dad Vaki Tui.
It details a life of domestic violence at the hands of her mother’s former partner and Tui’s own suicide attempt at age 11.
Tui hoped the book would help others by removing shame.
The hesitation she initially felt in writing the book disappeared when she visited her local bookstore looking for inspiration. She said she couldn’t find another book written by a woman like her.
She found plenty about the All Blacks but there wasn’t a single biography on a female rugby player or sports star.
“I stood in the sports section, and I searched and searched. I pulled out book after book, but there wasn’t a single biography on a Kiwi female athlete in the whole section.”
Tui eventually found an autobiography of Billie Jean King, the famous white American tennis player who retired in 1990.
“But that was it.
“I pictured a young brown female sportsperson walking in there and seeing herself nowhere, not belonging in the book world. My eyes welled up right there in the bookshop. I have to do this.”
