Thursday, July 21, 2005
miss traditionalist... is she, eh...?
Aye - more Rowling Rebuttals! J.K.R. has J.R.R. delusions - and who could blame her? Like Tolkien, she is the (contested) best at what she does (look at those sales figures; the people have spoken - and the people are always right - right? Right...). And so, *e-books are not good enough for her* - are they? How could they be - she has based her entire mythos on some wicked form of tradition (not to mention some obscure children's book titled *Larry Potter* which (...) she seems to have blatantly ripped off - case is still pending to even get to court if I am not mistaken...) and thus... She DEMANDS that her musings get the old-fashioned treatment of ink to paper... trees still grow, right? Yes - for now they still do... But, at this rate, splicing them down to accomodate the whims and fancies of every thick-headed thick novel-writer out there is just... well, not good, in the long run, for all the enchanted forests on the land... far away lands included... hmm?
Will she be able to hold on to her Harry Potter fortune though - will she buy out the silence of the author of the Larry Potter book (a lady author as well, ironically, who was, originally, willing to keep quiet indeed...) much the same way that M.J. paid off the boys to stay away (but the boys had questionable parents in the first place - that is what really worked for M.J. there...!). Most probably... yes... J.K. Rowling should keep up the good work - her editor sure thinks so/hopes so... millions to be made off the gullible and unimaginative children around the whole wide world... eh? Just... NOT ON THE E-BOOK MARKET... noooooooo!!!
Makes no sense - kids love computers - thus, they should like their books to be e-books... logically! But then again, Rowling fans are not a logical lot at all - were they logical, they would see that it is but a hodge-podge mix of all the classic previous fare's themes, written by the likes of Tolkien, a long time ago... and they would also know better about witches - they're not hero-material. Never were.
Care to see what a real witch can be like...? Not a wiccan either - an actual Potter - fully grown and really at it...? Check out This Novel
Will she be able to hold on to her Harry Potter fortune though - will she buy out the silence of the author of the Larry Potter book (a lady author as well, ironically, who was, originally, willing to keep quiet indeed...) much the same way that M.J. paid off the boys to stay away (but the boys had questionable parents in the first place - that is what really worked for M.J. there...!). Most probably... yes... J.K. Rowling should keep up the good work - her editor sure thinks so/hopes so... millions to be made off the gullible and unimaginative children around the whole wide world... eh? Just... NOT ON THE E-BOOK MARKET... noooooooo!!!
Makes no sense - kids love computers - thus, they should like their books to be e-books... logically! But then again, Rowling fans are not a logical lot at all - were they logical, they would see that it is but a hodge-podge mix of all the classic previous fare's themes, written by the likes of Tolkien, a long time ago... and they would also know better about witches - they're not hero-material. Never were.
Care to see what a real witch can be like...? Not a wiccan either - an actual Potter - fully grown and really at it...? Check out This Novel
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J.K. Rowling Refuses E-Books for Potter (and Harry cries...?!? *lol*)
Jun 14, 4:14 PM (ET)
By HILLEL ITALIE
NEW YORK (AP) - When "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" comes out in July, children from around the world will line up at stores or wait anxiously at home or summer camp for their copy to arrive by mail.
But anyone looking to read the book online, at least legally, should not even try.
J.K. Rowling has not permitted any of the six Potter books to be released in electronic form, not even during the peak of the e-book craze a few years ago. Neil Blair, a lawyer with Rowling's literary agency, would only say that "this has not been an area that we have sought to license" and did not comment directly on whether pirated e-books, a common phenomena for Potter titles, were hurting sales.
"We monitor the Internet and take appropriate action," Blair says.
Rowling's choice follows an industry trend. Young people are supposedly more open to new technology, but the e-book market works in an opposite way. Adult best sellers such as Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and David McCullough's "1776" are available electronically, but not books by Rowling and many other popular children's authors, including Lemony Snicket, Cornelia Funke and R.L. Stine.
"It's not like we haven't tried this market," says Jason Campbell, marketing director for Harper Media, a division of HarperCollins that oversees e-book distribution.
"We've done R.L. Stine and (Meg Cabot's) 'The Princess Diaries' and it didn't work. 'Princess Diaries' has been our most successful young adult series in e-books, but it pales in comparison to e-book sales for Michael Crichton."
Several reasons are cited, from authors preferring books on paper to concerns over digital piracy to competition from television and other media. But the greatest problem is the lack of a popular reading device, a handicap that has held back the whole e-book business from the start.
"I didn't think then, and I don't think now, that there is a cool enough or interesting enough hardware to get the kids engaged," says Barbara Marcus, president of the children's books division of Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic, Inc.
"One of the fantasies I had was of kids walking around, without backpacks, and somebody would say, 'You have to read "Of Mice and Men" and "The Red Badge of Courage." Here are the e-books.' That fantasy hasn't happened."
Kate Tentler, vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Online, said she has had some success with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and other works affiliated with TV shows or other media. But there have been no major breakthroughs, even when free downloads were offered for the popular "Samurai Girl" books.
"It didn't take off quite as much as I'd like to," she says. "The key is getting those books in front of them, and that's what we're trying to figure out."
The e-book market does continue to grow, although it remains a tiny part of the multibillion-dollar publishing industry. According to the Open eBook Forum, a trade organization, net revenues reached $9.6 million in 2004, nearly $4 million higher than in 2002. The number of actual e-books sold annually has more than doubled in that time, to nearly 1.7 million copies, even as the number of e-books published has declined.
No separate statistics are available for children's e-books, but many believe Potter would be a huge hit in the digital format, where even a few thousand copies is considered a best seller.
"I'm sure it would be a very big book very quickly and would probably serve as a terrific marketing vehicle to get people to buy the print book," says Nicholas Bogaty, executive director of the Open eBook Forum.
Industry officials agree that Potter e-books would have great advantages: an enormous fan base; appeal to readers of fantasy novels, which sell relatively well in electronic form; and appeal to adult readers, an asset that helped persuade Random House to release e-books for Christopher Paolini's popular "Eragon" novels.
"There's just not a market for books that don't have appeal to adults, because they're the ones with the devices at this time," says Linda Leonard, associate director of new media marketing for Random House Children's Books. "It is kind of frustrating. Kids are tech savvy, but we can't reach them."
Jun 14, 4:14 PM (ET)
By HILLEL ITALIE
NEW YORK (AP) - When "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" comes out in July, children from around the world will line up at stores or wait anxiously at home or summer camp for their copy to arrive by mail.
But anyone looking to read the book online, at least legally, should not even try.
J.K. Rowling has not permitted any of the six Potter books to be released in electronic form, not even during the peak of the e-book craze a few years ago. Neil Blair, a lawyer with Rowling's literary agency, would only say that "this has not been an area that we have sought to license" and did not comment directly on whether pirated e-books, a common phenomena for Potter titles, were hurting sales.
"We monitor the Internet and take appropriate action," Blair says.
Rowling's choice follows an industry trend. Young people are supposedly more open to new technology, but the e-book market works in an opposite way. Adult best sellers such as Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and David McCullough's "1776" are available electronically, but not books by Rowling and many other popular children's authors, including Lemony Snicket, Cornelia Funke and R.L. Stine.
"It's not like we haven't tried this market," says Jason Campbell, marketing director for Harper Media, a division of HarperCollins that oversees e-book distribution.
"We've done R.L. Stine and (Meg Cabot's) 'The Princess Diaries' and it didn't work. 'Princess Diaries' has been our most successful young adult series in e-books, but it pales in comparison to e-book sales for Michael Crichton."
Several reasons are cited, from authors preferring books on paper to concerns over digital piracy to competition from television and other media. But the greatest problem is the lack of a popular reading device, a handicap that has held back the whole e-book business from the start.
"I didn't think then, and I don't think now, that there is a cool enough or interesting enough hardware to get the kids engaged," says Barbara Marcus, president of the children's books division of Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic, Inc.
"One of the fantasies I had was of kids walking around, without backpacks, and somebody would say, 'You have to read "Of Mice and Men" and "The Red Badge of Courage." Here are the e-books.' That fantasy hasn't happened."
Kate Tentler, vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Online, said she has had some success with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and other works affiliated with TV shows or other media. But there have been no major breakthroughs, even when free downloads were offered for the popular "Samurai Girl" books.
"It didn't take off quite as much as I'd like to," she says. "The key is getting those books in front of them, and that's what we're trying to figure out."
The e-book market does continue to grow, although it remains a tiny part of the multibillion-dollar publishing industry. According to the Open eBook Forum, a trade organization, net revenues reached $9.6 million in 2004, nearly $4 million higher than in 2002. The number of actual e-books sold annually has more than doubled in that time, to nearly 1.7 million copies, even as the number of e-books published has declined.
No separate statistics are available for children's e-books, but many believe Potter would be a huge hit in the digital format, where even a few thousand copies is considered a best seller.
"I'm sure it would be a very big book very quickly and would probably serve as a terrific marketing vehicle to get people to buy the print book," says Nicholas Bogaty, executive director of the Open eBook Forum.
Industry officials agree that Potter e-books would have great advantages: an enormous fan base; appeal to readers of fantasy novels, which sell relatively well in electronic form; and appeal to adult readers, an asset that helped persuade Random House to release e-books for Christopher Paolini's popular "Eragon" novels.
"There's just not a market for books that don't have appeal to adults, because they're the ones with the devices at this time," says Linda Leonard, associate director of new media marketing for Random House Children's Books. "It is kind of frustrating. Kids are tech savvy, but we can't reach them."
Potter Breaks Records Across Atlantic - Jul 18, 4:16 PM (ET)
By HILLEL ITALIE
NEW YORK (AP) - Harry Potter is a record breaker on both sides of the Atlantic. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth of J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, sold about 9 million copies in Britain and the United States in its first 24 hours. The only book in publishing history to open nearly as well was Rowling's previous book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
"Typically, a good book will take about four to six months to go gold and very few books reach platinum in their first year of publication. 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' achieved platinum in less than one day!" said Richard Knight, the managing director of Nielsen BookScan, which Monday reported just over 2 million sales in Britain.
British sales of "Half-Blood Prince" were 13 percent higher than for the first 24 hours of "Order of the Phoenix."
In the United States, the new Harry Potter sold 6.9 million copies in its first day - averaging better than 250,000 sales per hour and easily outpacing the debut of "Order of the Phoenix," which came out in 2003 and sold 5 million copies.
Acknowledging that some stores quickly ran out of books two years ago, the U.S. publisher, Scholastic Children's Books, has already increased the print run for "Half-Blood Prince" from 10.8 million copies to 13.5 million.
"We want to make sure stores have enough copies this time," Scholastic president Lisa Holton said.
Audiobook sales were also record breaking, with more than 165,000 copies sold the first weekend. Audio sales were 20 percent higher than the launch of "Order of the Phoenix," according to Random House, Inc.'s Listening Library. Narrated by Grammy winner Jim Dale, the audiobook runs 19 hours, filling 18 CDS or 12 cassettes, with a cost of $50 for the cassettes and $75 for the CDs.
A range of Potter prices were available on the Internet, from used copies of the hardcover for $12.99 on Amazon.com to $992.40 for a signed first edition, available through another online seller, Abebooks.com.
Sales for the new Potter already top the combined hardcover totals for the memoirs of former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and generated more revenue last weekend, at least $100 million, than the nation's top two movies, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Wedding Crashers."
Unlike most blockbusters, "Half-Blood Prince" is also a hit with critics, at least in the United States, getting raves from The New York Times, The Seattle Times, The Associated Press and others. Many found it to be Rowling's deepest, most accomplished work, with a tragic conclusion that left even reviewers in tears.
Reviews have been tougher in England. The Independent's Suzi Feay found it "wordy, flabby and not very well edited - perhaps a bit less inventive than the previous ones." In The Observer, literary editor Robert McCrum enjoyed the plot, but complained that "Rowling's prose runs the gamut from torpid to pedestrian."
One thumbs up came from the author herself. In an interview Monday on NBC's "Today," she acknowledged picking up a finished copy of the book and being so engaged that she had trouble putting it down.
"It's really rather exciting," she said. "But generally speaking ... I would never pick up one of my own books and read it."
---
On the Net:
http://www.harrypotter.com
http://www.jkrowling.com
By HILLEL ITALIE
NEW YORK (AP) - Harry Potter is a record breaker on both sides of the Atlantic. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth of J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, sold about 9 million copies in Britain and the United States in its first 24 hours. The only book in publishing history to open nearly as well was Rowling's previous book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
"Typically, a good book will take about four to six months to go gold and very few books reach platinum in their first year of publication. 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' achieved platinum in less than one day!" said Richard Knight, the managing director of Nielsen BookScan, which Monday reported just over 2 million sales in Britain.
British sales of "Half-Blood Prince" were 13 percent higher than for the first 24 hours of "Order of the Phoenix."
In the United States, the new Harry Potter sold 6.9 million copies in its first day - averaging better than 250,000 sales per hour and easily outpacing the debut of "Order of the Phoenix," which came out in 2003 and sold 5 million copies.
Acknowledging that some stores quickly ran out of books two years ago, the U.S. publisher, Scholastic Children's Books, has already increased the print run for "Half-Blood Prince" from 10.8 million copies to 13.5 million.
"We want to make sure stores have enough copies this time," Scholastic president Lisa Holton said.
Audiobook sales were also record breaking, with more than 165,000 copies sold the first weekend. Audio sales were 20 percent higher than the launch of "Order of the Phoenix," according to Random House, Inc.'s Listening Library. Narrated by Grammy winner Jim Dale, the audiobook runs 19 hours, filling 18 CDS or 12 cassettes, with a cost of $50 for the cassettes and $75 for the CDs.
A range of Potter prices were available on the Internet, from used copies of the hardcover for $12.99 on Amazon.com to $992.40 for a signed first edition, available through another online seller, Abebooks.com.
Sales for the new Potter already top the combined hardcover totals for the memoirs of former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and generated more revenue last weekend, at least $100 million, than the nation's top two movies, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Wedding Crashers."
Unlike most blockbusters, "Half-Blood Prince" is also a hit with critics, at least in the United States, getting raves from The New York Times, The Seattle Times, The Associated Press and others. Many found it to be Rowling's deepest, most accomplished work, with a tragic conclusion that left even reviewers in tears.
Reviews have been tougher in England. The Independent's Suzi Feay found it "wordy, flabby and not very well edited - perhaps a bit less inventive than the previous ones." In The Observer, literary editor Robert McCrum enjoyed the plot, but complained that "Rowling's prose runs the gamut from torpid to pedestrian."
One thumbs up came from the author herself. In an interview Monday on NBC's "Today," she acknowledged picking up a finished copy of the book and being so engaged that she had trouble putting it down.
"It's really rather exciting," she said. "But generally speaking ... I would never pick up one of my own books and read it."
---
On the Net:
http://www.harrypotter.com
http://www.jkrowling.com
A comment via e-mail that is, admittedly, too good for me not to post it for the commenter (who's too lazy to figure out how to do it himself still, I presume... *lol*) - that's right, our pal to all - Paul...
"... the only cool Potter tale I have seen so far though is that WELCOME BACK POTTER skit on SNL where da potter comes back to teach just like that kotter guy did to a bad crowd!!!!! Man, that was such a natural - but the joke petered out fast too though..."
That's because blending two fantasy realities to make a funny is simply not enough, Paul - how could they miss out on the presence of a John Travolta type in there?!? At the risk of turning a Potter-themed gag into a Travolta gag, they should have explored that thoroughly; my Luminous suggestion is to run through all the memorable characters Travolta played - not just Barbarino but whatever-his-name-was on SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (hey - ANOTHER NATURAL FOR SNL!) and then have him hit it off big time with a witch (like he did with Lily Tomlin in that younger man / older woman ill-fated film they did shortly after SNF incidentally... nearly killed his career...) and from there he could GET SHORTY (who would be Harry himself in this instance! Or an elf...) and BE COOL... and have it all culminate in a FACE-OFF Potter-Travolta where both lose their identities in the ensuing mélée and Lorne Michaels steps in and calls the whold blamed sketch OFF in turn...!!!
THAT is how you do it...!
Gee - I should be writing for SNL - me... ME!!! *LOL*
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"... the only cool Potter tale I have seen so far though is that WELCOME BACK POTTER skit on SNL where da potter comes back to teach just like that kotter guy did to a bad crowd!!!!! Man, that was such a natural - but the joke petered out fast too though..."
That's because blending two fantasy realities to make a funny is simply not enough, Paul - how could they miss out on the presence of a John Travolta type in there?!? At the risk of turning a Potter-themed gag into a Travolta gag, they should have explored that thoroughly; my Luminous suggestion is to run through all the memorable characters Travolta played - not just Barbarino but whatever-his-name-was on SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (hey - ANOTHER NATURAL FOR SNL!) and then have him hit it off big time with a witch (like he did with Lily Tomlin in that younger man / older woman ill-fated film they did shortly after SNF incidentally... nearly killed his career...) and from there he could GET SHORTY (who would be Harry himself in this instance! Or an elf...) and BE COOL... and have it all culminate in a FACE-OFF Potter-Travolta where both lose their identities in the ensuing mélée and Lorne Michaels steps in and calls the whold blamed sketch OFF in turn...!!!
THAT is how you do it...!
Gee - I should be writing for SNL - me... ME!!! *LOL*
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