Rowling Dumps Longtime Literary Agent

Harry Potter's J.K. Rowling has dismissed her literary agent, Christopher Little. It's a stunning development discussed today in London's Daily Mail: "The announcement in the industry journal The Bookseller stunned the literary community and industry watchers, who had always regarded the Rowling-Little partnership as one of the strongest and most enduring in the business. Little, a fiercely private man, would say only that he was  ‘disappointed and surprised’ by the ‘premature news’."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2012997/Harry-Potter-author-JK-Rowling-dismissed-Dumbledore-book-agent.html#ixzz1RkX1GHUn

Potter Book and Audio Set Sales Records

Sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows set records on both sides of the Atlantic this past weekend. According to Publishers Weekly, publisher Scholastic sold 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours in the U.S., while Bloomsbury sold 2.65 million copies in the U.K. in the first 24 hours. The audio version also set a record in the U.S. selling an estimated 225,000 copies, a 40% increase over Half-Blood Prince.

Independent booksellers in the U.S. reported brisk sales, with scattered reports of sell-outs! Apparently Scholastic limited the number of books that independents could order based on past Potter sales. The independent I frequent had a smallish display left for sale Saturday morning after a busy event Friday night, although tickets are sold for the Friday night event, from which book distribution are dependent, are sold well in advance. This independent actually is one of four stores, and I don't know how many copies the other three stores have on-hand.

Potter Pages Magically Disappear?

Better skip ahead in your Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at least to make sure pages aren’t missing. Publisher’s Weekly reports some copies of the newly released book in Vermont were missing pages 643-674. Some copies in New York skipped from page 642 to 707 to 730, then went back to page 675 and then to the end. Ah, what a wicked web we weave when first we practice to … uh … kill Harry Potter to return to power through arrogant displays of … oh, it was just a printing error!

Potter Goes Postal

After all that, our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows finally arrived by U.S. Postal Service! Amazon.com sent it via UPS to the U.S. Post Office to deliver it to our home! Fortunately, our mail arrives mid-morning these days and the wait wasn't very long, but a few months ago we would have had to wait till late afternoon, and that would have been unbearable for my wife. And to make matters worse, we would have been looking for the wrong deliverer all day, expecting it to arrive by UPS. As our royal cousins in London might say, "We are not amused."

Okay, okay, at least it got here as guaranteed! Let's have some perspective.

Although I brought the box directly to my dear wife to open and coddle, she handed it back to me and said, "No, dear, you go ahead and read the final chapter first." I'm not a Potter fanatic and all I'm really interested in is ending all the speculation about how the story ends. Who lives, who dies, and who got it all wrong. So I told my wife weeks ago that when she got the book I would only read the final chapter. So that's what I did, although I read both the last chapter and the epilogue to get the full effect. I won't spoil it for anyone, but suffice it to say, I think it was a good ending and a fitting conclusion to the series as I understand it in my limited perspective. It had its surprises for everyone, I think. Even reading just the last chapter I learned a lot about what happened before it.

As a writer and general reader, let me say I really enjoyed Rowling's writing in this chapter. I wasn't able to read her first book because I didn't like the style, and I have stayed away from the five previous books because of it. I may have to reaccess now that I've tasted this final book and liked it. Which reminds me of a new rule I created a few years back. I didn't want to see the movie Babe when it first came to theaters because I didn't want to see a movie about a darned pig. That turns out to have been a mistake. When the movie came out on tape my daughter rented it and forced me to watch it, and I discovered what a silk purse it was hiding in a sow's ear, if you will allow a pun-ish metaphor. I was so taken with it, I came up with a new life's rule never to let my prejudices against mud-snuggling beasts keep me from enjoying a movie (or a book) again. A similar rule may apply to books by authors whose writing may at first glance appear childish, trite, and silly -- maybe the style will grow with the subject and the audience as it appears to have with HP. (I'm projecting way ahead of the curve here, since I haven't tried reading any of the other books yet.) My motto is, learn from every experience. Let's see what I learn when I walk away from this keyboard...

Amazon Arranges with UPS to Deliver on Saturday

I spoke with Amazon.com today about their guarantee of delivery of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by July 21, which is Saturday. I pre-ordered HP for my wife on Sunday, which is in time for the guarantee, and I received an e-mail letting me know my pre-order was being readied for shipment via UPS. Then I remembered that UPS doesn't usually deliver on Saturdays! So I alerted them to call me (they have this very tight new technology that has them call me when I'm ready ... now ... in 5 min. ... in 10 min. ... in 15 min). The nice voice on the other end of the phone assured me that Amazon had a special arrangement with UPS to deliver Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to readers this Saturday as promised. So in case you were worried, it's been taken care of.

To try their Amazon.com's call technology, you need to go to Amazon Help and look for the Contact Us box on the righthand side with the Customer Service button inside. You'll have to log in. Let me know what you think.

Harry Potter’s Reviews and Release Missteps

Two U.S. newspapers have published reviews of the seventh and final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ahead of the official release of the book. One review is in The New York Times and the other is in The Baltimore Sun.

Without giving away much detail about the book or its ending, both reviews concluded the ending was fitting. Said the Baltimore Sun article, “Suffice it to say, though, that once you have consumed the final sentence on the final page crafted by Rowling, the ending seems inevitable. It is a tribute to the author's consummate storytelling skills that once the pieces fall into place, it all seems rather obvious. No other outcome would have been as plausible.”

Books Get Out Despite Tight Security

According to a story on MSNBC.com, “The New York Times review, which appeared overnight, said its copy was purchased from a New York City store on Wednesday, while the Baltimore Sun said it obtained a hard copy of the book ‘through legal and ordinary means.’”

I mentioned in an article a couple of days ago (see below) that publishers are keeping an eye open for early release of the Harry Potter books and that this isn’t unusual for publishers in major book releases. They in fact take bookstores to court for violating agreements to hold books back to agreed upon “lay down dates.” It seems that Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is suing an online bookseller and its distributor for, according to The New York Times, “‘ flagrant violations of their strict contractual obligations’ not to ship copies of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ before 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the time and date set by the publisher.” This is happening in Illinois and involves DeepDiscount.com and its distributor, Levy Home Entertainment. Scholastic accuses DeepDiscount.com of shipping copies of the book to customers up to a week before the on-sale date.

Since The New York Times obtained its copy from a New York City bookstore before the release date, I wouldn’t be surprised to find some legal action taken in that jurisdiction.

Potter Doesn't Turn Fans into Faithful Readers?

Remember the story when the Harry Potter books first became popular that they were turning children into more faithful readers? Turns out that may be urban legend. According to an article in The New York Times on July 11, “as the series draws to a much-lamented close, federal statistics show that the percentage of youngsters who read for fun continues to drop significantly as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before Harry Potter came along.” What turns kids into good readers isn’t one good series of stories – that’s actually called fandom or hero worship. No, what turns kids – or adults – into good readers is the love of good stories in general: Good plots, imaginative settings, worthy themes, memorable characters, and brilliant storytelling. It was silly to expect one series of books to turn children into readers as if by … well … magic.

Children become sustained readers when they move beyond Harry Potter – to discover other series with equally compelling characters and well written narratives, to find suspenseful adventures or interesting biographies or compelling histories or spellbinding fantasies. We can encourage and nurture the trend if we remove the distractions and interruptions, like blaring TVs, incessant iPods, and spellbinding Xboxes and give words on pages a chance to sink in and do their “magic.” It’s when that magic has a chance to grab hold of the imagination and the child is given the chance to manipulate it him or her self that the child embraces reading long term.

Harry Potter Books Have Shipped for B&N Stores

Barnes & Noble starts shipping copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to its stores today, according to The Book Standard. Meanwhile, 700 of their stores will be holding parties for the official release of the book. Oh, the magic and mayhem!

You can still pre-order your copy at Amazon for delivery by July 21 (see article below) -- barely. But honestly, with the record-breaking first printing I'm having a hard time believing you won't be able to walk into your favorite bookstore on July 21 (not right after midnight ... early the morning of the 21st) and get a copy off the shelf or off a special display. When I worked at a bookstore, hundreds showed up for the other parties, stood in line to get their copy just past midnight, then the next morning we had plenty of copies to sell to those patient enough to wait. In fact, we had plenty for months after. One year, my sister pre-ordered hers on Amazon and actually got it before the midnight partygoers got theirs!

There's Magic After Potter

If you’re a Harry Potter fan and you know you’ll go through Potter withdrawal when you finish the seventh – and final – book coming out July 21, then consider another seven-part British kid-wizard series: Septimus Heap. Three books of the series have been published since their debut in March of 2005, the first being Magyk, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books. The other two are Flyte and Physik. All are written by British author Angie Sage.

If you like your fiction in the form of movies, fear not. Warner Brothers Studios has picked up the rights to this series, according to The Book Standard. Read all about it.

My wife, Kate, is a Potter fan but after the ordeal of waiting for J.K. Rowling to finish seven books vowed never to get involved with an unfinished series again. Still, when I told her about the Septimus Heap series, she sighed and said, “I should take a look.” She does love ‘er wizards, ‘Arry.

Security Tight for Arrival of New Harry Potter Book

"The release of J.K. Rowling’s last outing with her creation at one minute past midnight on Saturday July 21, will be the culmination of the most fraught operation in publishing history," says The Book Standard. "Boxes have been chained shut, barbed wire has been uncoiled and satellite tracking systems for delivery vans have been double-checked," says London's Times. Book stores across the world probably haven't received their shipments of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yet, but when they do their bulky cardboard boxes will likely be padlocked into secure rooms where even staff won't see them until the magical moment of release arrives.

Lest you think you can collar a bookseller the day before the big event -- or even an hour before -- to sneak off with your copy to avoid the crowds, don't even think about it. Booksellers are bound by contract to wait until just after midnight on July 21 to release to the public.

If a store breaks such a contract with a publisher, they face lawsuits and stiff fines -- possibly even blacklisting -- from the publisher! Every big release book comes with what the book industry calls its "lay down date." That's the first date the store can put the book out on public display for view or sale. That's why when you ask your favorite bookseller about an upcoming new book and they tell you it's coming out "tomorrow" and you ask if they will kindly sell it to you today, the answer is always no.

By the way, I see that Amazon.com will allow pre-order of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by noon ET on July 17 for "release-date delivery". Barnes and Noble requires pre-order by July 16 for July 21st delivery in the contiguous 48 U.S. states.

Could Potter Plotter Make It Number 8?

Never say never, say Harry Potter fans in the U.K. According to a story today in The Book Standard, ' "There has never been a writer like J.K. Rowling. And there has never, ever been a character like Harry Potter. Millions, perhaps billions of us love reading his adventures, and we never want them to end." The site hopes to get 1 million names on its petition before the July 21 release date of Deathly Hallows.' Their hope is that author J. K. Rowling will do what she's vowed not to do and write more Harry Potter stories after the release this month of book number 7.

Harry Potter to Go Green..er

According to Scholastic Inc., Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling's seventh and final installment in the world-popular series, will be printed in the U.S. to meet tighter environmental standards. This according to an Associated Press story released on MSNBC.com today ( See "Final Potter book goes easier on trees").

The paper used for printing will be comprised of nearly a third of post-consumer waste fiber (environmentalese for "recycled paper"). And a limited-run deluxe edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be printed on entirely post-consumer waste fiber paper.

Considering Scholastic will do 12 million copies on the first printing, that could save a lot of trees. Congratulations to whoever at Scholastic made the decision.