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| Millions of people will descend on stores for a copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in July, but deep discounts mean many will struggle to turn a profit from the jamboree. "Everywhere you go there is huge, ridiculous discounting by the chains," said Graham Marks, children's editor at the 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." Online retailer Amazon.com and Wal-Mart Stores have slashed nearly 50 percent off the book's list price of $34.99 (17.79 pounds), forcing many independent booksellers to follow suit to stay competitive. Barnes & Noble and Borders Group, the world's largest booksellers, are selling it at 40 percent off. Such price cuts drive sales, but usually result in minimal profit margin, something Jefferies & Co analyst & Co. analyst Tim Allen said typically happens on every bestseller. "It's so discounted, there's minimal, if any, gain," Allen said. "Retailers try to make up the shortfall by marketing loyalty cards, which they hope will entice shoppers back into their store." The conclusion to J.K. Rowling's saga about the boy wizard's battles with the forces of evil could be among the fastest-selling books in history, and some large retailers have broken records for orders well ahead of its July 21 release. Amazon.com boasted more than 1 million advance orders for the book, easily besting advance orders for Rowling's 2005 release, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." In April, Barnes & Noble said advance orders for "Deathly Hallows" topped 500,000 copies, breaking the bookseller chain's record for advance sales. But with widespread discounting biting a gigantic chunk out of any potential profits, many booksellers are not enthused about its release. And for smaller, independent book stores, the discounting makes for a hard calculation. "The bookselling trade has lost millions by having to discount Harry Potter as heavily as they do," said Caroline Horn, children's editor at Bookseller, a British trade magazine. "A lot of independent bookstores won't be selling Potter. They say it would be cheaper to buy it from a supermarket than the publisher." The Chapter One Bookstore, an independent bookseller in Hamilton, Montana, is selling the book at full price and donating $7 of each sale to a library of the buyer's choice. "The discounting -- online and at the chains -- does affect what you think you can sell," said Russ Lawrence, head of the American Booksellers Association and part-owner of the Chapter One Bookstore. "Each bookseller has to decide how to deal with that." MAGICAL INVENTORY Scholastic Corp. -- the U.S. publisher of the "Potter" series -- is planning to release a record-breaking 12 million copies of "Deathly Hallows," so retailers expect no problems getting inventory. "We placed our orders for them and they've guaranteed us we'll get them," said Dara La Porte, the children's book manager at Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, D.C. "The last couple of Harry Potter titles -- we've gotten them within 24 hours of when it released." Borders has been taking reservations for "Deathly Hallows" since December, giving the company a solid gauge for what it will need to order from Scholastic, company spokeswoman Ann Binkley said. "As we get a little closer to (July 21), we'll sit with Scholastic and talk about what our reserves are ... We partner very closely with our vendors." NATIONAL BOOK CLUB Whether the book has a happy ending for Harry Potter and his wizard friends is still not generally known, but booksellers say the series has been able to create millions of young readers in an era of video games and the Internet. "We get to host a party in July for probably 200 kids who are excited about a book. And that's a real opportunity for us to promote the whole idea of reading for pleasure," Lawrence said of plans for the Chapter One Bookstore. Since bursting onto the scene in 1997, the Harry Potter series has sold more than 325 million books worldwide, spawning four feature films. The fifth film, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," will hit cinemas a week ahead of the new book's arrival. "There's people informally chatting about a book everyone is reading that normally wouldn't do that," said Mark Suchomel, president of Chicago-based Independent Publishers Group. "For a few weeks, it's almost a national book club." |
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| Potter embargo 'could be broken' By Mark Savage Entertainment reporter, BBC News The final Harry Potter novel could hit shelves before its official release next week. Some shops are not expected to keep a written agreement which prevents them selling the book before 21 July. "It's quite possible one will break the embargo," says Katherine Rushton from The Bookseller magazine. "They'd do it to be first, and for all the PR." The book's publishers, Bloomsbury, said it had "no reason to believe anyone would want to ruin the excitement". "If such a thing were to happen, we believe that the public would make their feelings known by not buying it from such a spoilsport retailer." However, it added, "it is our intention to vigorously enforce the embargo if required". The secret police are out there ready to jump on anyone who breaks the embargo with a terrific sledgehammer Robert Webb, book seller Author JK Rowling has also stressed the importance of keeping to the official publication date on her website. "I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are they going," she wrote. Embargos on previous instalments of the series have generally been observed because Bloomsbury threatened to withhold future Harry Potter books from stores who flouted the rules. This time there is no such incentive. "Because it's the final Harry Potter, Bloomsbury doesn't have that same power," says Rushton. "It has played its last ace card." Midnight openings Bookshops around the UK, many of which are opening at midnight to sell Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have mixed opinions on whether the embargo will hold. "I'd be very surprised if anyone sold it early," said Tim Curtis of The Little Apple Bookshop in York. "I'm not sure consumers would want it." "People like to be part of the midnight thing," agrees Suzanne Jones of Heffers in Cambridge. "I've got an 11-year-old who has got it in her diary and she wants to go out and be part of it." "To buy it in the cold light of day on a Friday is just not the same." But Robert Webb, who has run Kingsthorpe Book Shop in Northampton for the last 34 years, says it is "a miracle" the embargo has held in the past. "It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it did get broken this time. "But I think the secret police are out there ready to jump on anyone who breaks the embargo with a terrific sledgehammer." 'Spoilsports' Harry Potter mania has led to the book becoming available in locations where you would never expect to find works of literature - such as garages and hardware stores. It is thought that these shops - which have less to lose by souring relations with Bloomsbury - are the most likely to reveal the boy wizard's fate ahead of time. "I don't think you'll get traditional bookshops doing that," says Rushton. "Inside the industry and outside the industry they'd be seen as spoilsports." But the security operation surrounding the publication of the novel is so tight that anyone who does break the embargo is only likely to get a few hours head-start on their competitors. They may also find themselves at the centre of legal action. Everyone who stocks the book has had to sign an indemnity form, which makes them liable for damages and "other equitable relief" if they do not keep their side of the bargain. No photos As well as setting the embargo, the document imposes stringent conditions on retailers to ensure the plot of the book is not leaked. Retailers have to keep boxes containing the novel "in a secure area under lock and key", and they definitely must not be "visible to the public for any reason". It is not even permitted to take a photograph of the books being delivered. One shop-owner who will not be complying with the regulations is Mr Webb in Northampton - because he has decided not to order any copies of the last ever Harry Potter. "There's a branch of Asda 100 yards away from our shop," he explains. "We're advising our loyal customers to take advantage of their generosity. "They'll save three quid - which they can come and spend on something else here!" Story from BBC NEWS: |