Harry's lost some readers, but more wait in wings
By Deidre Donahue and Jacqueline Blais
USA Today
Three years ago, J.K. Rowling's "Goblet of Fire" was published to mass hysteria. Harry Potter fans dressed in costumes, attended midnight bookstore parties and wielded pretzel wands in revelry.
As the young wizard enters adolescence in the series' fifth book, will his original fan base follow, now that many of them are teens themselves? That is the question facing Rowling and her U.S. publisher, Scholastic, with "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
On June 21 at 12:01 a.m., readers will get their first look at "Phoenix." The announced first two printings: an unprecedented 8.5 million copies in the United States. The English-language version will be released simultaneously in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
But not all of Harry's fans may come back. "I feel like I have kind of grown out of Harry Potter," says Mallory Jones, 12, a seventh-grader in Zionsville, Ind. She says she may buy "Phoenix" on its release date, but only if she finishes" Goblet of Fire," the fourth book in the series.
Mallory was 8 when all the enchantment started with "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." She "devoured" that book, says her mother, Renee Jones, but interest sputtered with "Goblet of Fire," and Jones believes the length — 734 pages — was a deterrent. The new book is longer.
"I really haven't put much effort into reading the fourth book," says Mallory. She says many of her friends believe they are now too old for Harry Potter.
Booksellers and Scholastic hope that kids like Mallory are the exception rather than the rule. To generate buzz, Scholastic is spending between $3 million and $4 million to market and advertise the book.
That is "considerably more than we spent on 'Goblet,"' says Scholastic's Michael Jacobs. (The publisher spent close to $1 million on "Goblet.")
Bookselling experts believe Harry's three-year absence has not harmed the little wizard's magic.
"I don't think Scholastic was overestimating its audience with that mammoth first printing," says Publishers Weekly children's book editor Diane Roback. "I think it will eventually sell that and more."
If it does, the entire industry could benefit. One key difference between the "Phoenix" launch and the" Goblet" launch in 2000 is the slower environment of book sales.
Stores hope magic spreads
At BookExpo, the annual industry gathering held last weekend, Jacobs was approached by competing publishers who wished him luck. Everyone is hoping "Potter" traffic will cause "all boats to rise," he says. "Hopefully it's not a temporary blip."
Judging by reports of advance orders, demand is greater for this book:
• Amazon.com has 550,000 advance orders to date for "Phoenix," vs. 350,000 three years ago for "Goblet." Worldwide, there are more than a million advance orders for "Phoenix," vs. 410,000 for "Goblet." "It's just incredible. It is our largest product release ever," says Steve Kessel, vice president of books, music and video at Amazon.com. As for who's ordering the book, Kessel says: "kids of all ages."
• At Barnes and Noble Bookstores and Barnes&Noble.com, "hundreds of thousands of pre-orders" have come in for the fifth book — "more pre-orders than we've received for any other book," says spokeswoman Carolyn Brown. The majority of the 630 B&N stores will be open at midnight, Brown says. And Barnes & Noble is sponsoring a Harry Potter Sweepstakes contest in which the grand prize is an expenses-paid trip for four to "Harry Potter's England."
• Orders have exceeded 700,000 at Borders and Waldenbooks (about 1,200 bookstores). "The phenomenon is amazing," says Jenie Carlen, spokeswoman for the Borders group. All 412 Borders will be open at midnight, with each store planning activities such as dragon-egg hunting.
Even if some teens are no longer wild about Harry, others are. Roback notes that "Potter's" "readership has gotten older but has also expanded — younger kids have been catching up on books they were too young to read when the books first came out. And adults, both parents and not, have fallen hard for these books, too."
Toni Bernardi, former chair of the American Library Association's Notable Children's Books committee and manager of children and youth services for the San Francisco public library system, says "Phoenix" is attracting almost as many people over 18 as under 18 at San Francisco's 27 public libraries. People started putting their names on the reserve lists months ago. At the moment, there are nearly 300 names, half of which are adults. A librarian for 30 years, Bernardi confesses that she can't wait to get her hands on the book.
Possessive about Potter
And, says Scholastic's Jacobs, people are particular about Potter: Everyone needs his or her own copy, even in the same household. "It's multiple purchases within households. People feel possessive about it."
As for Harry's age progression: "That's the beauty part. He's our hero, and we're watching his journey. I think it's perfectly appropriate that the audience goes along with him," Jacobs says.
Fanatical fans are remaining loyal. Among them is Mike Mohyla, 16, a high school junior from Clifton, Va.: "I will have ('Phoenix') back in my house the day it is released — one way or another." (His father, Steve, has reserved a copy online.)
With the first book, Mike, his parents and sister Megan, 12, started reading aloud one chapter a night after dinner. They will start right in with "Phoenix." Steve Mohyla says the family has tried other books, but none has snared their attention. And at 46, he says he's just as excited as his children. Megan says her friends are very excited about the fifth book, too.
In the three years since "Goblet," Laura Schreiber, 16, of Port Angeles, Wash., has kept her fascination alive by watching the two "Harry Potter" movies (the third is due June 4, 2004), checking out "Potter" movie Web sites, rereading the books and playing "Potter" trivia games with her friends.
Schreiber was one of the winners of Scholastic's 2000 "Goblet" essay contest. She appeared on NBC's "Today" show and met with Rowling at a breakfast in New York along with nine other winners. (Schreiber is still keeping their conversation secret, but she says Rowling confirmed her suspicions about what develops in the fifth book.)
Her plan this year, as in 2000, is to buy the book at 12:01 a.m. on June 21 and finish it by Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
She is "really excited to find out what happens to the characters and the plot."
Some teens opt not to party
Although many teens seem enthusiastic about the upcoming book, parties and wands are not in their plans.
Erin Meyers, 18, of Tyler, Texas, is excited, but she won't be wielding a wand on June 21. Having begun the series at 15, the incoming Emory University freshman relishes the way "it brings back childhood" and its desire for magical powers. Some of her friends think the "Potter" books are juvenile, but that's usually because they haven't read them, she says.
"I'll probably read it," says eighth-grader William White, 13, of Washington, D.C. But he says the anticipation is nothing like the craze when he was in the third grade and everyone was reading the first "Potter" book. J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" generates more enthusiasm now, he says.
Some children's literature experts won't be disappointed if the "Potter "craze cools.
Parents have become "a little frantic," says Roger Sutton, editor in chief of the Boston-based The Horn Book, which reviews children's and young adult books. "It's ridiculous to read the series to 4-year-olds. The humor is wasted on them," he says.
Children should read "Harry Potter" when they can read it themselves, he says. (In an interview for her third book, "Prisoner of Azkaban," Rowling said she wrote for children ages 9 and up.)
Sutton believes the series has infected children's publishing with a new level of commercial hysteria. "An editor told me that her boss is always demanding: "Where's your 'Harry?'"
