Author diaries

Book Sales

I bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as I knew my son would read it while we were away on holiday, and he was away from his computer. It is the only book he has read of his own volition all year.

In fact, just after I had bought it, I was waiting in my local chemist for a prescription to be filled; while I was standing there, I thought I’d take a look at the first few pages (I’d promised my son he could read it before me). As soon as I got it out of my bag, the young lass serving behind the counter asked:
”Is that the new Harry Potter? I queued up at midnight and got it for £5 at my local Asda.” I was asking her how it compared with the earlier books, when a stout middle aged man at my side, who looked like a builder, joined in:
“Is that the new Harry Potter? I bough it for £5 at Asda.”
He complained that the full price was prohibitive for young readers, and why did it have to be so expensive?
I thought afterwards, what other book would get all three of us having a conversation about literature in a chemists, or anywhere?

This week my son and I were having a meal with friends and their sons, a rarity for us all to be sitting with our teenagers round a dinner table. And what topic of conversation got us all hotly debating? Harry Potter.
What we actually ended up discussing was who should have acted the parts in the films - was David Thewlis too old? Did Daniel Radcliffe look too well-fed?
We finally ended up trying to decide which Harry Potter character each of us would be - just like a real old fashioned parlour game.

JK Rowling knows how to write page turners, but I find her plots are instantly forgettable. My son had to put me right about all sorts of events that I’d not grasped correctly: I’d either missed it in the novel, or I’d forgotten a plot point from an earlier one in the series. I get annoyed at how two dimensional the characters are, and wish I could get lost in the world she creates, but I don’t, I just see glaring inconsistencies that rile me.

However, she’s got lots of imaginative ideas, and has created a literary phenomenon that forges links between children and adults, which has to be A Good Thing. Plus she’s the richest woman in the known universe, and she’s sold squillions of books.

It puts other book sales into perspective - Andy at Smokestack has just told me he’s having to go for a third reprint of Wall. My sales count must be, oh, nearly five hundred? That’s ok with me.

Posted by Ellen on 21 August 2007 at 08:39 PM GMT [Link]