Proud Ngarigo woman and former women's world number one Ash Barty has become one of Australia's most popular athlete-turned-authors after the recent release of her autobiography.
Titled My Dream Time: A memoir of tennis & teamwork, Barty's autobiography is approaching six figure sales since its release in November 2022.
According to leading sales analysis firm Nielsen BookScan, Barty's life story is comfortably the number one Australian women's sport autobiography, with total sales closing in on 100,000 copies.
It's popularity has eclipsed that of both former Prime Minister Julia Gillard's self titled memoir (more than 68,000 sales), and Bart Cummins' autobiography (more than 87,000 sales).
If the popularity of Barty's autobiography continues it could outsell Ricky Pointing's At The Close of Play (more than 97,000 sales), with Adam Gilchrist's True Colours: My Life (more than 131,000 sales) not out of its sights.
Barty told New Corp she was glad to hear her autobiography had been well received by fans.
"I was very lucky to have so much love and support for my career when I played and I and pleased they enjoyed reading about it and hope there were things in there they did not know," Barty said.
The three-time major winner said fans would learn something new by reading her autobiography due to her keeping some things "quite close" throughout her tennis career, so much so that the text was also enjoyed by family and close friends.
"There were a few bits and pieces I had kept quite close and I just hope they enjoyed the story," Barty said.
"My Grandma said there were so many times when I wanted to ask you questions and reading the book they were all answered for me.''
"People who were so close to me in my journey still learnt something new."
"(Junior coach) Jim Joyce is slowly getting through it and he said he could not believe how much I remembered and how what a big impact some small conversations can have.''
Barty's literature successes post-retirement has not been limited to her autobiography, with her children's book series titled Little Ash already amassing more than 70,000 purchases, with further orders expected to reach the 100,000 sales.
Both her autobiography and six-title Little Ash series are published by Harper Collins, who are "thrilled" with the popularity of the publications according to the company's Australian head of non-fiction, Helen Littleton.
The success of Little Ash has encouraged Barty, who will release four more editions of the popular paperback to complete the 10 book series.
"I was a little nervous as to how it would be received. Being a reader myself and knowing how many great kids' books out are there I was nervous but it has been exceptional," Barty said.
