Remember how we used to have to wait until Labor Day, or at least late July, to declare one title THE book of the summer? We haven’t had that pleasure much in recent years, and we for sure won’t have it this one: six months before it went up for sale – and, for all we know, before it was even completely written – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last installment of the phenom little wizard series, was clearly the winner. No. 1 on Amazon on many days in the months before publication (occasionally jilted off by the flash-in-the-pan likes of such characters as Hillary Clinton and Princess Diana) the highest number of Amazon pre-orders in history (1 million) and countless (and I really do mean countless, Google lists 2,470,000 references to this book alone, untold more for sites that misspell the title "Hollows." ) stories have surely guaranteed that the unprecedented 12 million copy first printing of Hallows will, as they say, fly off the shelves.
Not, of course, that there’s anything wrong with that: as we’ve been saying and believing for years, anything that is this good for one book and one publisher is good for us all; a book, or a series, that inspires both kids and adults to read (no mean feat, to snag both of those groups) can never be bad; besides, all this Harry hoopla puts books on the front pages and the TV screens and thus gets people into the stores. In fact, we should all be grateful: We haven’t seen this kind of culture-drenching phenomenon since. .. . .well, no one can think of a comparison, since the Nancy Drew and Little House on the Prairie books didn’t have Harry’s demographic crossover, and even megaMitch Albom or list-hog James Patterson would give their P&L’s for Potter’s in a heartbeat.
Given all this, it seems churlish to even suggest that there’s a downside, that the little wizard has wrought havoc in any way. And while I doubt that all this megapublicity – the carefully controlled yet breathless announcements from Scholastic with which most news outlets, including this one, dutifully fill their pages – will have a backlash effect on the Harry hungry public (or on Scholastic’s coffers), not everybody benefits from Pottermania. Take, for example, the retailers, big and small. The former have made the dubious choice to discount HPATDH so drastically that even they admit their revenue – on the most popular book in history! – will be down this year. The latter can’t begin to compete with the economies of scale and some may bypass their distributors and buy direct – at nearly the same discount – from Amazon or Costco. And what of the writer or publisher trying to score magazine, tv or radio time this summer for his sensitive first novel or delightful beach read? Good luck: Summer 2007 is already and will forever be remembered as all Harry Potter, all the time.
Still, we continue to insist Harry is good for business, and lament the fact that starting next year, we’ll be back to square one, scrambling to find the next big thing, to capitalize on the book business frenzy that was Harry’s truest wizardry. What or whether we’ll succeed remains to be seen, now that we won’t have Harry to push us around any more.
Sara Nelson is Editor in Chief of Publishers Weekly: The International Voice for Book Publishing and Bookselling. You can read all of Sara's weekly Gather columns at saranelson.gather.com. And for more of Sara's columns click here.
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Comments: 12
The Harry Potter series will no longer be something awaited with fluttering heart. But they will be instant classics, taking their place on the shelves of bookstores and libraries for decades to come along with the Little House Series, Holes, The Giver, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, The Hobbit, etc. So don't worry, those 325 million copies sold so far will not last forever, they will wear out, get misplaced, be left outside before a rainstorm, etc. So is plenty of money left to be made from Harry Potter books, not to mention films #6 and 7.
The Arnie Carver Adventures , as I have since Spring approached media outlet after media outlet and bookseller after bookseller, I have felt the sting of the refrain, "We'll have to get back to you after we've done out 'Hallowsween' Party in July."
While a rising tide normally lifts all boats, when the flooding waters are caused by a colossus barge all but completely filling the channel from sea to shining sea, the positive platitude holds little meaning for the dingies crushed between the hulking beast's hull and the walls of the canal.
As one saga ends, another begins in its place. The books which shall not be named are not the last series that will ever be read. Either I (hopefully) or some other master of the literary craft (more likely, if appointed by the publishing Gods) will come out with the next great thing. Granted, though it has been a decade-long flash in the pan, I doubt, when all is said and done or even twenty years from now, the world will make a Sinaitic refrain, "From Harry to Harry, there's no one like Harry."
Will
As for you Ken, you're a brave man to be trying to make a career for yourself in juvenile literature, what with the daunting competition--not just from MS. Rowling, but from the likes of Madona and every other celeb who gets a hankering to become an author by penning a book for kids (and who, unfairly, automatically tap into a direct pipeline to publication.)
it depends on the age of those young adult males. If they are 11-14, you might try Phillip Pullman's series His Dark materials- the first, The Golden compass, is being made into a movie this December. Another good fantasy adventure series is the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula leGuin (The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore). The Chronicles of Prydain is also fun, written by Lloyd Alexander (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, the Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King). The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is a good middle school book, (adventurous, clever, and in some places, funny), while some 9th or 10th graders may be willing to read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.
At a certain point, around age 16, getting males to read anything is like pulling teeth. Too much other stuff to do like girls, cars, and video games. At that point, they often are willing to read adult books if they are willing to read at all.
I am a librarian by the way.
AUTHORSHIP. We are talking about the whole ambit of book publishing.
That's a nice journalistic view of the matters...
Hillary Clinton and Princess Diana - could be serving as another thing or the thing itself or person themselves(I mean them and their books: Harry/JK, of course of the given time)...