Not so Wild About Harry

British Independent Booksellers Refuse to Stock "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Bryan Terry
Bryan Terry, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Mar 10, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Fans across the world are anxiously awaiting the July 21st release of J.K. Rowling's final installment in her famous Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. What they might not be expecting, however, is the cover price: $34.99, making it one of the most expensive children books published. This is quite a high price for a book that millions of readers will want to get their hands on, especially when one considers that many of those fans will be children that don't have the $34.99 to spend on a book. By comparison, when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was published by Scholastic in 1999, the cover price was $17.95.

Many of the major retailers - Amazon.com, Costco, Barnes & Noble, Walmart - are offering heavy discounts for readers. (Amazon is offering 46% off, Costco 50% off, Barnes & Noble 40% off and Walmart 49% off.) Yet, where does this leave the independent booksellers, the mom and pop book stores, the ones who were the first to promote Harry Potter and who usually only just scrape by on the thinnest of profit margins? Do they discount it themselves, taking a hit in the profit column, or do they sit back and pray that readers will be loyal to and buy Deathly Hallows at full price?

In Britain, this has led to an interesting situation. According to Publishers Weekly, nearly 25% of the nation's independent booksellers have decided not to stock the book at all. That's right, on author J.K. Rowling's home-turf, up to a quarter of the independent booksellers have said "No" to Rowling, her publisher and Harry Potter. There is no word yet on whether American independent booksellers will be doing the same.

This is a seemingly sour note on which to end fans' ever-deepening love affair with Rowling and her creation, but the booksellers claim they have little choice.

Harry Potter has become an archetypal character since his debut in 1999 and has inspired many readers. He is the defender of the weak and an enemy of oppression. One has to wonder what Harry would do in this situation.

Rowling's Potter franchise will receive a further boost in 2007, with the much anticipated coming release of the fifth film in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Order tells the story of Harry's increasing persecution as he and Hogwarts' Headmaster Albus Dumbledore continue to spread the story of Lord Voldemort's return. As well as the return of the stars from the previous four films, including Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Maggie Smith (Professor MacGonagall), Alan Rickman (Professor Snape), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) and Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), Order will introduce fans to Helena Bonham Carter as Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange and Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge, whom author Stephen King called "the greatest literary villain since Hannibal Lecter."

Published by Bryan Terry

A second-year grad student trying to survive parenthood and a teaching assistantship.  View profile

11 Comments

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  • Joanna Lopez4/25/2007

    Wow! That is high. All I know is I wish I could have her paycheck. Great article. Bye

  • Jack Oceano3/14/2007

    Interesting! Thanks for the article!

  • Michael3/13/2007

    It stinks that a lot of places are actiually thinking about not stocking the last Harry Potter book, but come on. It's the last one in the whole series and fans everywhere are going to be going crazy getting it... $34.99 is a bit steep though, but worth it since it's the last (and maybe even the greatest!)

  • Bunting Resources3/12/2007

    $40 . . . . . . . yikes. Great Article!

  • matt3/11/2007

    its well worth $40 bucks for the best books ever....

    ps your pooor

  • Lindy Disman3/11/2007

    I love Harry Potter!!! But the prices are outrages!! I mean come on 40 bucks for 1 book that is to high!!

  • Mary3/11/2007

    Considering the article deals with the situation in the United Kingdom, it's a little peculiar that you're providing reference using prices and discounts that apply to the United States.

    I ordered my copy from Waterstones. I generally shop for books there anyway, especially since there are no indie book shops near where I live.

    Jae - The stores offering 40% off can't afford to do this off the profit margin of the book itself. It's a practice known as "loss-leading" whereby the store gives a highly-desirable item a lot price to draw custom into the shop. They make a loss on the item itself, but they make a profit on other items customers may buy while they're there.

  • Alisa Terry3/11/2007

    Nothing in the article blames Rowling. You're reaing too much into a news article.

  • Lucy John3/11/2007

    I wondered, too, why they are priced so high that the large stores can discount them so much. Or, are they using them as loss leaders - pricing them below their own cost with the knowledge that many customers will buy other things while shopping there. I already ordered mine from Amazon and I bought other things at the same time, so I guess I am playing right into it. Either way, I can't wait to get it!

  • Belsito3/11/2007

    I don't much like the spirit with which this article was written, starting with the title which is insinuating a general disenchantment with the Harry Potter World - a totally false conjecture! As regards to the price, no one who has followed the series expects it to cost as much as the first book did. The books volumes have tripled since then whilst the price has doubled - besides the fact that the cost of living has steadily increased since 1999. How many children's books are as voluminous as the latter Potter books have been - is it any wonder that they are more expensive? We should be dancing jigs in the street with utter joy that children are queuing up at midnight to celebrate a book's release, a seven hundred page book at that. I appreciate the fact the small independent book-sellers are unable to match the discounted prices of the giant sellers but it is the western world's economic forces which are to blame and not JK Rowling, as this contributor seems to imply. I have no

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