Over Hyper Potter
Jul. 15th, 2005 08:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerI want to clear something up that is currently driving me crazy with the media and most of the population of the United States. It has to do with the sale of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Tomorrow is the big day for the sale of the books and I have heard more “news” coverage including the Daily Show about the book being sold early. This includes a judge in Canada issuing an order that the people who got copies early may not disclose the contents of the book until the release date. I have a news flash for all. It is not illegal to sell a book before its release date in the United States.
Let me repeat that, it is not illegal to sell a book before its release date. It is extremely stupid because publishing companies do not have sell their product to anyone they do not wish to do business with. That is not illegal either. By breaking the release date on something like Harry Potter, you could find your bookstore selling next to nothing because the publishers blacklist your store. It is a deterrent and nothing more. It is suppose to level the playing field for everyone who wants to sell the book. This way they can make use that stores far away from the printing presses have the book the same time as the big cities. Amazon could have shipped their copies to their customers 2 weeks ago but they know what will happen if they did. It is the same with CDs and DVDs. The release date is the very strongly suggested date that the material goes on sale nothing more and nothing less. Bottom line is that this is a very un-news story that is getting way too much play.
I had to deal with lay-downs, as they are called in the business, all the time when I was working at Borders. We had an e-mail we got once a week with the updated lay-down titles and their release dates. Sometimes it was a pain to find room in our teeny tiny stock room for the boxes but we managed. The other thing we had to be vigilant about was audio books being mixed in before the release date with the regular shipment. Then on the day of the release I would load up the book cart and we would fulfill the pre-orders and put the book out on the floor for sale.
At Del Rey I had to deal with Star Wars novels finding their way into the hands of fans way early. We finally tracked that problem down to our people in distribution and I believe there was some serious hand slapping and new rules created about books under lay-down leaving the building. Part of it was that we wanted the fans to find out all together what was going to happen next in the NJO (New Jedi Order) and part of it was that the fans who had the books made sure everyone knew that they had them including people at LFL who were not happy with that fact.
So to repeat it is not illegal to sell or buy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It is just a really stupid business move.
I am grateful that I don’t have to deal with this lay-down.
Let me repeat that, it is not illegal to sell a book before its release date. It is extremely stupid because publishing companies do not have sell their product to anyone they do not wish to do business with. That is not illegal either. By breaking the release date on something like Harry Potter, you could find your bookstore selling next to nothing because the publishers blacklist your store. It is a deterrent and nothing more. It is suppose to level the playing field for everyone who wants to sell the book. This way they can make use that stores far away from the printing presses have the book the same time as the big cities. Amazon could have shipped their copies to their customers 2 weeks ago but they know what will happen if they did. It is the same with CDs and DVDs. The release date is the very strongly suggested date that the material goes on sale nothing more and nothing less. Bottom line is that this is a very un-news story that is getting way too much play.
I had to deal with lay-downs, as they are called in the business, all the time when I was working at Borders. We had an e-mail we got once a week with the updated lay-down titles and their release dates. Sometimes it was a pain to find room in our teeny tiny stock room for the boxes but we managed. The other thing we had to be vigilant about was audio books being mixed in before the release date with the regular shipment. Then on the day of the release I would load up the book cart and we would fulfill the pre-orders and put the book out on the floor for sale.
At Del Rey I had to deal with Star Wars novels finding their way into the hands of fans way early. We finally tracked that problem down to our people in distribution and I believe there was some serious hand slapping and new rules created about books under lay-down leaving the building. Part of it was that we wanted the fans to find out all together what was going to happen next in the NJO (New Jedi Order) and part of it was that the fans who had the books made sure everyone knew that they had them including people at LFL who were not happy with that fact.
So to repeat it is not illegal to sell or buy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It is just a really stupid business move.
I am grateful that I don’t have to deal with this lay-down.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-15 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-15 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-15 10:17 pm (UTC)My parents once told me that news programs covered actual news at one time. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-15 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-16 12:10 am (UTC)See I managed to get into the Harry Potter mania when we had 3 books that were being released in the US rather close together so we had lots of sales but not the lunacy that has then ensued as the next book comes out.
But guess where I am tonight at midnight tonight......My local Borders to pick up our copies.