Everything We Know About Jill Duggar’s New Book ‘Counting the Cost’: Release Date, Price, and More

Former 19 Kids and Counting star Jill Duggar is opening up about what it was really like to grow up on reality TV and the dark parts of her experience that viewers didn’t see. Her upcoming book, Counting the Cost, will explore her “painful journey” and the challenges she and her husband Derick Dillard faced when dealing with her family’s “lack of respect for boundaries, greed, manipulation, and betrayal.”

‘Counting the Cost’ is out in September 2023

Duggar family followers have long been hoping for a tell-all memoir from Jill, who has publicly distanced herself from her her ultra-conservative family. Now, their dream is coming true. Days before the premiere of Prime Video’s docuseries, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, Jill took to Instagram to share that she’d written a memoir. Unfortunately, people will have to wait a few months to hear what she has to say. 

Counting the Cost will hit store shelves on September 12, 2023, with a list price of $28.99 for the hardcover and $14.99 for the ebook. It’s available for pre-order now and is already a bestseller in the “Religious Cults” and “Memoirs” categories on Amazon. On Instagram, Jill confirmed that there will be an audiobook version as well. 

Counting the Cost will be published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Jill is the primary author, with Derick and Craig Borlase as co-authors. Borlase is a ghostwriter who’s also worked on the New York Times bestsellers Finding Gobi and My Name Is Tani. 

What to expect from Jill Duggar’s tell-all memoir

Jill isn’t the first Duggar sibling to publish a book about her time on TV and her decision to break away from her family’s beliefs. In her 2023 book Becoming Free Indeed, Jill’s younger sister Jinger Duggar opened up questioning the ideology of her youth and developing a new relationship with Christianity. That book was critical of the notorious Institute in Basic Life Principles and its founder Bill Gothard. But it did not directly call out her parents, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar. 

It sounds like Jill’s book will take a much more critical look at the Duggar family itself, and the disconnect between what audiences saw on 19 Kids and Counting and what was really going on behind the scenes. 

In Counting the Cost, Jill and Derick will “share their story, revealing the secrets, manipulation, and intimidation behind the show that remained hidden from their fans,” according to the book’s synopsis. 

Growing up, Jill “didn’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married,” the synopsis continues. 

But as Jill got older, married Derick, and started building her own life, “the red flags became too obvious to ignore.” Eventually, “thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God” she and her husband were able to “find healing through honesty.”

Jill previously wrote a book with her sisters Jinger, Jessa, and Jana Duggar

Counting the Cost isn’t Jill’s first foray into publishing. In 2014, she and her sisters Jinger, Jessa, and Jana Duggar released Growing Up Duggar. The book covered their faith, their childhood, and their beliefs about relationships. They opened up about deciding to remain “pure” while courting, eschewing secular culture, and dressing modestly. 

In the introduction to Growing Up Duggar, the girls shared how Jim Bob and Michelle taught them to deal with conflict within the family. 

“Mom and Dad have always taught us to quickly work out those issues so that resentment and bitterness don’t creep in and destroy our family’s closeness and unity,” they wrote. 

The reality for the Duggars was more complex, Jill says in Shiny Happy People. In the series, she opened up about how damaging and hurtful it was when the family swept serious issues – particularly sexual abuse committed by eldest son Josh Duggar – under the rug and pressured her and her siblings to behave as if nothing was wrong. It sounds like Jill will have a very different take on her childhood in her upcoming book. 

[This article has been updated with a new release date for Counting the Cost.]

For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel.