Monday, June 11, 2007

Harry Potter magic spells losses for booksellers

You may have noticed that I havent mentioned Harry Potter before. Thats because I'm not a kid and I dont have a crush on him. I'm old enough to be Harry's mother - and Daniel's too for that matter. LOL

I've seen the frenzy (there is no other word to describe it) in the bookshops to sell the most HP books. And the latest frenzy to get the most advance orders for the last book due out, in just 6 weeks.

Anyway there was an interesting article on Yahoo today about how most bookshops will not make much if any profit on the last volume despite have thousands of advance orders, because they have discounted them so much, that they lose their profit margins.

Everywhere you go there is huge, ridiculous discounting by the chains," said Graham Marks, children's editor at the British-based trade magazine Publishing News.
"They are literally not going to make one penny out of the book. It is stupid - just throwing money away ... The world has gone mad."


I agree with calling it stupid. Sure people will buy the book at $19.99, but since it is the LAST book in a very popular series, they should also be willing to buy it at the retail price of $35. Or they can do what I do - wait 6 months, reserve it at the library and read it for free. Thats what I have done with every other Harry Potter book, and I dont expect this one to be any different.

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