Harry Potter's competition

His Dark Materials, Artemis Fowl, and Shadowmancer have all been named as competition to HP at some point.

Scholastic covered the bases by snapping up the Charlie Bone series.

Bartimaeus trilogy. There are others, I just saw them in the bookstore, but I can't think of them at the moment.

And you might check out my home page... scroll down. www.christine-norris.com It's being done all over the place. I was happy to be a part of the book, and it was fun to write.

hey, kids like what they know. Of course, fresh is always good.

I just checked my copy of Northern Lights (the first HDM book)- it was first published in '95

Seems as though The Spiderwick Chronicles are doing well. It was optioned for a film (2007).

I Agree with the whole Eragon series and most definately Artemis Fowl. If they're are three series' my friends and I have are eyes on it's those two and Harry Potter, we vary every where else. Although when you really think about it, Harry Potter doesn't seem so great. The characters are starting to get on my nerves. You'd think at some point that Ron would realize that Harry is his best friend and stop assuming that Harry is out to get him everyonce and a while. Maybe at some point Harry and Ron would listen to Hermione when she warns them instead of teasing her and despiseing her. Maybe more people would end up alive that way. And whats with Ron and Hermoine always fighting to the death. Real friends don't have three week periods every six months when they refuse to talk to each other, I feel like Harry is the only thing holding them together, otherwise they would go off in opposite directions and hate each other forever or forget each other. Doesn't happen with real friends, not real real ones. And finally, why is Harry afraid to date Ron's sister....probably because he knows Ron would kill him if he tried to date his siter. Harry should be able to express his feelings to his friends without worrying about them hating him in return and Ron, if he had a brain, should be able to realize that Harry is a nice guyt that wouldn't hurt his siter. It all comes down to, I don't really think they're that good a trio of friends. They may make self sacrefices in battle, but in the real world they don't. This doesn't add up too well. Rowling seems rather inconsistent for the plot's and images sake, or she thinks all friends hate and mistrust each other except in tight situations. Okay...so that wasn't reaaly your question but I felt like posting it. Anyway, good luck. It certainly sounds good.

potter

Vuligora said:

I Agree with the whole Eragon series and most definately Artemis Fowl. If they're are three series' my friends and I have are eyes on it's those two and Harry Potter, we vary every where else. Although when you really think about it, Harry Potter doesn't seem so great. The characters are starting to get on my nerves. You'd think at some point that Ron would realize that Harry is his best friend and stop assuming that Harry is out to get him everyonce and a while. Maybe at some point Harry and Ron would listen to Hermione when she warns them instead of teasing her and despiseing her. Maybe more people would end up alive that way. And whats with Ron and Hermoine always fighting to the death. Real friends don't have three week periods every six months when they refuse to talk to each other, I feel like Harry is the only thing holding them together, otherwise they would go off in opposite directions and hate each other forever or forget each other. Doesn't happen with real friends, not real real ones. And finally, why is Harry afraid to date Ron's sister....probably because he knows Ron would kill him if he tried to date his siter. Harry should be able to express his feelings to his friends without worrying about them hating him in return and Ron, if he had a brain, should be able to realize that Harry is a nice guyt that wouldn't hurt his siter. It all comes down to, I don't really think they're that good a trio of friends. They may make self sacrefices in battle, but in the real world they don't. This doesn't add up too well. Rowling seems rather inconsistent for the plot's and images sake, or she thinks all friends hate and mistrust each other except in tight situations. Okay...so that wasn't reaaly your question but I felt like posting it. Anyway, good luck. It certainly sounds good.

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I think all your complaints are exactly what's right with the Potter books, not what's wrong with them. Everything you list as being a probelm is exactly why most readers love the Potter books. They ring true to life, and real life is almost always just this way, and so are friends.

MarkN said:

Well, here I go invoking the "HP" word again, but my novel is aimed at "readers who enjoyed the Harry Potter series," so I'm interested in scoping out what other competition is currently occupying the same niche. I'm thinking Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini fall roughly into that same market, and perhaps--drat, what was the name of that other one, the recent award winner? I'll think of it after I've posted this.

I'm not looking for classics like Narnia or Lord of the Rings, but recently marketed works that an editor or agent would be taking into consideration when comparing my manuscript to "the competition" to gauge how well my novel would likely fare in bookstores across the country. What else should I be looking at, and are there any good info sources I should keep an eye on to be up to speed on what's hot?

TIA.

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I think anything and everything published these days is aimed at Harry Potter fans, largely because Rowling has so many readers that you either find Potter readers who like your book, or you'll find no one.

I don't t think Eragon applies, however. Darned if I know many kids who like it. More older teens and stunted adults.

But I don't think trying to write like the competition, or trying to be compared to the competition, gets writers anywhere. That isn't how Rowling got where she is, and it's no coincidence.

I think good books that beat the competition are always books that do so only because the writer has a vision, and turns that vision into a novel that's readable.

Agents and editors want to read a book and think "Wow, what a great story. I'm so glad I read it." If they do this, then, and only then, will they think, "You know, the Harry Potter fans might like this, too."

The way to beat the competition is to write a unique book with a great story, well-told, and it has to be your vision, and not written because you think it will appeal to certain readers.

Another hot YA fantasy writer is Tamora Pierce.

Jamesaritchie said:

I think all your complaints are exactly what's right with the Potter books, not what's wrong with them. Everything you list as being a probelm is exactly why most readers love the Potter books. They ring true to life, and real life is almost always just this way, and so are friends.

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I definitely agree. Part of what I love about the books is that the characters are not at all perfect and can be absolute idiots and jerks at times, like us all.

There are several children's fantasy series I've seen out lately. Charlie Bones is one, Spiderwick is a series, the Eragon and Artemis Fowl, Septimus Heap, Children of the Lamp, Bartimaeus.

I haven't actually read any of these except the first Artemis Fowl so I can't say how much like HP they actually are but they seem to be aimed at the same market. Hope that's helpful.

Yeshanu said:

Another hot YA fantasy writer is Tamora Pierce.

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Yes, and I adore Tammy, but she writes for an age level above Harry Potter. The 13-18 crowd. It does make a difference, because she does address more 'adult' themes in some of her books, like sex and pregnancy. But she's a terrific writer and a fabulous lady. I read the Tortall books as soon as the new ones come out.

Thank you Watermonkey! Children of the Lamp - that's what I couldn't think of.

I think all your complaints are exactly what's right with the Potter books, not what's wrong with them. Everything you list as being a probelm is exactly why most readers love the Potter books. They ring true to life, and real life is almost always just this way, and so are friends.

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Really? That surprises me. I always thought it was because people think it would be pretty cool to find out they can leave behind a sucky life and be a wizard! I agree with the idesa of imperfect characters that reflect real life, but Rowling seems to be portraying this kind of realationship as okay. It may be real life sometimes, but it isn't okay. You should have a goal to make your realationships better, and Rowling's characters don't seem to have thois goal. Hermione finds it acceptable to hate Ron and vis versa. They are completely and utterly selfish, not bothering to think about how the other character feels and figure things out. It's a perfect example pof those evil marriages where the spouses hate each other instead of loving each other, and the result is a divorce where everyone ends up messed up. The first few books showed understandable first time friendship problems and the characters seem to be getting better. By book six they have become a band of egotistical selfish jerks held together for the sake of the plot, too proud to admit they are wrong and set things right. This is as anti-hero as ypou can get, not admiting to hurting someone when you know you are wrong and using excuses like "well he did such and such" to satisfy your own nagging conscience until you've become nothing more than a bitter shell of hatred, selfishness, and a down right nasty person. Ring a bell? Umbridge. She can't apologize for doing wrong to Potter, she can't see things from other peoples views and she hates anyone who stands in her way. The evolution of Hermione in my opinion, and I find this really sad, since in the first few books, Hermione was areally nice girl filled with potential. Ron used to be halfway decent too, and now, I hate him sooo much. He is a very big jerk and even though Hermione has some problems, she still has potential and I think her inner self wants to be kind, but hey, after sticking around with friends who yell at you when ever you give advice, I think you'd be pretty annpoyed too. So it kind of disgusts me that Ron likes Hermione and vice versa, that whole love "battle" in which they try and destroy each others souls because they "love" each other. If that's America's definition of love, then we are in some deep sh*t. Ron isn't worthy of Hermione. Harry seems to be the only character that maintains good "hero' qualities outside of the battle, I don't Rowling could get away with making Harry a nasty little brat. Yet, Harry seems to start losing it in the Sixth book, with his jabs at Hermione. And then his own friends won't believe him, even when he was right for the last Five books! Then they're like, "Oh, my Gosh. You were actually right." It's a down right nasty path to send people down and in addition, there are perfectly wonderful realationships out there were people love each other and actually mean it. And in addition, you think that Rowling would have some character developement that doesn't involve knowing more magic or getting horimones. But that isn't really the case. As friends, they don't become more aware of each other, trust each other more, or learn to deal with the problems all friends encounter to an even mildly acceptable degree. They get worse, nasty, meaner. At least Narcaza loves her husband. Hermione can't even say sorry for three weeks.

-Vuligora

So you believe books should teach children how things should be rather than how they are? That's just the kind of stuff I hate, and just the kind of stuff kids don't fall for.

I think a book should show reality, but nssesarily say it is acceptable. They used to execute people for speaking their minds. If someone wrote a book to express this reality, it would be okay. To say that such a atrocious action is okay is wrong. If it were right, we wouldn't be writers....well actually we would be dead writers....in little pieces.....and stuff.

Vuligora said:

To say that such a atrocious action is okay is wrong.

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Ms Rowling never said such a thing. No writer would ever condone any part of their novel to be taken as a moral guideline.

She never actually says it, and maybe she doesn't believe it is okay, but her characters' responses to their own not so great actions, the responses of her "heroes", certainly don't show any remorse or consequence for harming each other....well that's not completely true. People get killed consistantly, but there is very little time spent seeing their wrong ways, people don't seem to realize that the pain and suffering is a result of bad actions and bad decisions. They get sad about the deaths, spend two seconds saying sorry, but no one learns from their actions. They still make stupid mistakes, the same mistakes consitantly, and as a result people get killed. This leaves me with two frames of mind. A: Rowlings three main characters are just plain stupid by book six
or
B: Rowling doesn't think correcting mistakes for the better is greatly important

Or maybe I'm wrong, and if I am please give me some examples to correct me, this is just my opinion and my impression. I just feel like there is a lot of negative ideas regarding how to handle realationships in the potter books preceeding the third book. The six book was certainly hardly more than a teen issues novel about love tangles with dashes of intersesting plot and heroism squashed in at regular intervals.

Kids have spats, then they make up?? Ron and Hermione hate each other? Or is there a deeper reason for their behavior? I think she shows the complexity of relationships brilliantly. And teenagers are even more so. People are flawed, and making mistakes has consequences, some big, some small.

People are not one-dimensional animals.

I know as a child and teen, and even now far more enjoy reading books where the characters are flawed people, who make big mistakes and do stupid things. I know many people who hurt others just so they can get ahead. Realism is more important to me than everything turning out okay and characters learning from their mistakes. Some people never do learn. As for justifying your actions, I think we all do that even if they seem wrong to other people. I know I do.

In my opinion the characters in the HP books have progressed well, Harry has been deeply affected by the deaths he's seen. Friends are nasty to each other, I've been nasty to my own for months at a time even though I really love them. I just think it's better not to sugarcoat issues.

As for no friendships and hating each other, I feel that the major theme that has been maintained through the series is that friendship, love, and hope are VERY important and largely the reason Harry is still alive. (Beyond magic.)