J.K. Rowlings: The business of selling books
The new J.K. Rowlings book is important to all the players involved in the Harry Potter franchise, writes the Wall Street Journal (subscription required); the stock prices of the players involved have been favorably impacted by the revenue from that franchise:
Ms. Rowling's four published titles have sold an estimated 175 million copies world-wide in hard and soft cover, and the books have been published in at least 43 languages.
Partly because the first four Potter books were published every summer starting in 1997, there has been speculation that the fifth book is late. But Ms. Rowling said she never set a publication date for the latest book. She also dismissed speculation that she has suffered from writer's block, describing that as so much fantasy...
"If I sat down and thought that there are 17 million kids anxiously scanning Amazon, I'd freeze. I couldn't do it." [A] factor has been the amount of mail she receives, an estimated 1,000 pieces every week from readers in the United Kingdom alone.
She once devoted one day a month to answering her correspondence, but now it requires one day a week. She said she feels compelled to answer some letters herself because they have been sent by sick children or other needy readers who require an answer. "You have a moral obligation to do certain things," she said.
[Scholastic] is publishing a mass-market version of it priced at $6.99, with a new cover aimed at older kids and adults.
In addition, Scholastic is readying yet another Harry Potter onslaught for the coming holiday season. The company will issue a deluxe, leatherbound edition of "Chamber" priced at $75, a boxed set of the four previously published hardcovers for $85, and a boxed set of the four volumes in paperback priced at $31...