Why some books are hyped?

JK Rowling's first advance was £1500 from bloomsbury with a small print run. Even with currency differences I can't see that reaching 4k in usd?

105k is for the American rights which came later (after a couple awards I think).

Looks like I'm wrong about subsequent advances though. I think the point still stands mostly.

Harlequin said:

JK Rowling's first advance was £1500 from bloomsbury with a small print run. Even with currency differences I can't see that reaching 4k in usd?

105k is for the American rights which came later (after a couple awards I think).

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The Scholastic offer came after it was a proven winner and looked like it was going to be a license to print money.

Harlequin said:

JK Rowling's first advance was £1500 from bloomsbury with a small print run. Even with currency differences I can't see that reaching 4k in usd?

105k is for the American rights which came later (after a couple awards I think).

Looks like I'm wrong about subsequent advances though. I think the point still stands mostly.

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I believe the Bloomsbury advance was £2500, not £1500. The pound to usd spot exchange rate was probably close to 1.6. Hence the 4k in dollars (2,500 * 1.6 = 4k). Again, in the following spring she received a much larger advance for the U.S. rights. I don't know if any awards were picked up between October of '96 and the spring of '97.

Here's a timeline I came across: https://www.infoplease.com/spot/harry-potter-timeline

ETA: looks like the first book was published on June 26, 1997. This would have been after she received her sizable advance for the U.S. rights.

I've never before seen any source citing it as 2500 or 4000, and am surprised to find so in your link.

HP wasn't published in the states until 1998. The 1997 is for the UK, sold (I think) in 1996, but a year between selling/publishing is the norm. I'm getting mixed up as to where you're referring to what; a potter fan is probably needed to sort out this dispute.

Ergh. I hate myself for getting drawn into semantics here.

Harlequin said:

I've never before seen any source citing it as 2500 or 4000, and am surprised to find so in your link.

HP wasn't published in the states until 1998. The 1997 is for the UK, sold (I think) in 1996, but a year between selling/publishing is the norm. I'm getting mixed up as to where you're referring to what; a potter fan is probably needed to sort out this dispute.

Ergh. I hate myself for getting drawn into semantics here.

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lol, I can stop at any point, I promise.

Here's a link to an article on bloomberg.com discussing the amount: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2005-05-29/nigel-newton

To quote:

"One of Newton's favorite maxims is "out of uncertainty comes discovery." But the chairman and chief executive of Bloomsbury had no inkling what a gold mine he had discovered when he offered J.K. Rowling a £2,500 advance ($4,700 at the current rate) for her first Harry Potter book. In fact, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and its four successors went on to earn more money within the next decade than just about any book except the Bible. "We hit it lucky," says Newton, whose accent hardly betrays his California upbringing."

The 1,500 amount seems to come from an article located here: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/the-jk-rowling-story-1-652114

This article claims 1,500. Clearly, there is a discrepancy. Which is correct, I have no idea, but I lean toward bloomberg.com.

Regarding the dates, I'm fairly sure they're accurate. The first advance was received in October of '96. The U.S. rights were picked up in the spring of '97, and the book was first published (as the philosopher's stone in the uk) on June 26, 1997. I haven't found anything really conflicting with those dates. After the release of the novel, it began to win awards and snowball from there.

Fair enough.

JoB42 said:

Curiously, what *special* marketing did the publisher do for Harry Potter originally?

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None at all, because there was nothing remarkable at all about the franchise when it was initially published. It was around book three that word of mouth and popularity began to pick up, and the 4th book was the first release that I really remember being a 'thing.' At that point, with the franchise turning into the Juggernaut it is today, additional marketing was a no-brainer.

As opposed to when the first one came out, and it was just another book that had not yet eared any particular note.

I remember finding Twilight (I know, ew) in the bargain bin of BJ's, a warehouse store similar to Sam's Club. I read the first one, and the second. Then all of a sudden as I was waiting for the third people a couple years later everyone started freaking out over the first and I was sitting there like.....I bought this book for 99 cents in a damn bargain bin. I knew everything that happened, and admitidly spoiled a lot for people who were trying to shove Book 1 in my face.

I agree with the Harry potter craze. It was one of those things where it was out with not a lot of attention, and I remember my mom coming home with 3-4 books and reading them to me every night because she was like OHMYGOD you cant miss this.