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malsperanzaHome at last, after 5 days with no email or web access, trapped in a Hyatt Regency conference center with 600-odd publishing executives (some of them odder than others).
Spent the entire time attending veryveryuseful panel discussions and veryveryliterate cocktail parties and veryveryhotel dinners with veryverywitty keynote speakers, all the time scanning the crowd, white-wine spritzer in hand, for anyone else who looked like a possible OOTP reader with whom I could have the only conversation I wanted to have.
Still, was very amusing to be chatting about The Death of the Scholarly Monograph and The Crisis in Returns and The Myth of the Effective Short Run and What Will We Do Now that the Indy Bookstores Are Gone and Will Print-on-Demand Save the First Novel by a Worthy Unknown Author and all the other staples of conversation when publishers get in a room together with white wine, all the while speculating about which of these bleak, cynical, joyless realist denizens fo the adult world were secretly shipping H/G and which were more into Ron/Squid.
I'm putting this behind a cut tag even though there are no spoilers, because some people can't bear even the merest whiff of a maybe-mightbe spoiler. So
So I was sitting in the sunny courtyard of the Hyatt Pretentious during a break, scraping New York mildew off my skin and trying to finish OOTP before the session on Author Contracts began, when a printer's rep came up to me. We had this conversation:
Printer: So you're reading Book Five.
Me: Yes.
Printer: Can I look at it for a minute?
[I hand him book. He turns to colophon page]
Printer: Oh, too bad, we didn't print this one. It's from Massachusetts.
Me: You printed OOTP?
Printer: We did 1.5 million at our Michigan plant. We were in lockdown for a month; it was like the National Security Agency.
Me [curious]: How many shops printed it?
Printer: I don't know; about 5 or 6 in the US and Canada, I think. And two presses did the covers.
*Printer and I pause to offer our silent admiration to the manufacturing director who successfully got 8.5 million copies of a 900pp casebound, jacketed book from multiple printers and binderies to every bookstore and miscellaneous retailer in North America, in sealed pallets, on time*
Me: Sheesh. No wonder they gave the production director and managing editor credits in the colophon. So they did this as a marketing ploy, right? To prevent reviewers and readers from giving away the ending in advance?
Printer: Nah, they wanted to saturate the market fast, before the pirate editions could get out.
Me: 5 million sold in the first 48 hours; looks like they succeeded. So have you read it?
Printer: A month ago.
Me (hastily): I haven't finished yet! Don't tell me!
Printer: Well, I'll just say this: I dunno if Harry's gonna save the world or not, but he single-handedly rescued the publishing industry worldwide in 2003.
Me: Yeah; last year it was Frodo.
Informal Travel Survey
Adults reading OOTP June 21, flight NYC - Chicago: 6
Adults reading OOTP June 21, flight Chicago - St. Louis: 9
Adults reading OOTP June 25, flight St. Louis - NYC - Chicago: 7
Adults reading Philip Pullman on any of these flights: 1
Children reading OOTP on any of these flights: 0
Adults reading OOTP during publishers' conference (who would admit it): 4
Regarding the book itself, I shall write something up separately. I had mixed feelings about it.
Elsewhere in the news, the two peanut-brained cats recognized me when I came home.
Cats: Oh, it's you. Hurrah! Hurrah! She's home! She's home!
Me: Why thank you. Lovely to see you again too. How about a hug?
Cats: In your dreams. Can we have some catnip now?
Spent the entire time attending veryveryuseful panel discussions and veryveryliterate cocktail parties and veryveryhotel dinners with veryverywitty keynote speakers, all the time scanning the crowd, white-wine spritzer in hand, for anyone else who looked like a possible OOTP reader with whom I could have the only conversation I wanted to have.
Still, was very amusing to be chatting about The Death of the Scholarly Monograph and The Crisis in Returns and The Myth of the Effective Short Run and What Will We Do Now that the Indy Bookstores Are Gone and Will Print-on-Demand Save the First Novel by a Worthy Unknown Author and all the other staples of conversation when publishers get in a room together with white wine, all the while speculating about which of these bleak, cynical, joyless realist denizens fo the adult world were secretly shipping H/G and which were more into Ron/Squid.
I'm putting this behind a cut tag even though there are no spoilers, because some people can't bear even the merest whiff of a maybe-mightbe spoiler. So
So I was sitting in the sunny courtyard of the Hyatt Pretentious during a break, scraping New York mildew off my skin and trying to finish OOTP before the session on Author Contracts began, when a printer's rep came up to me. We had this conversation:
Printer: So you're reading Book Five.
Me: Yes.
Printer: Can I look at it for a minute?
[I hand him book. He turns to colophon page]
Printer: Oh, too bad, we didn't print this one. It's from Massachusetts.
Me: You printed OOTP?
Printer: We did 1.5 million at our Michigan plant. We were in lockdown for a month; it was like the National Security Agency.
Me [curious]: How many shops printed it?
Printer: I don't know; about 5 or 6 in the US and Canada, I think. And two presses did the covers.
*Printer and I pause to offer our silent admiration to the manufacturing director who successfully got 8.5 million copies of a 900pp casebound, jacketed book from multiple printers and binderies to every bookstore and miscellaneous retailer in North America, in sealed pallets, on time*
Me: Sheesh. No wonder they gave the production director and managing editor credits in the colophon. So they did this as a marketing ploy, right? To prevent reviewers and readers from giving away the ending in advance?
Printer: Nah, they wanted to saturate the market fast, before the pirate editions could get out.
Me: 5 million sold in the first 48 hours; looks like they succeeded. So have you read it?
Printer: A month ago.
Me (hastily): I haven't finished yet! Don't tell me!
Printer: Well, I'll just say this: I dunno if Harry's gonna save the world or not, but he single-handedly rescued the publishing industry worldwide in 2003.
Me: Yeah; last year it was Frodo.
Informal Travel Survey
Adults reading OOTP June 21, flight NYC - Chicago: 6
Adults reading OOTP June 21, flight Chicago - St. Louis: 9
Adults reading OOTP June 25, flight St. Louis - NYC - Chicago: 7
Adults reading Philip Pullman on any of these flights: 1
Children reading OOTP on any of these flights: 0
Adults reading OOTP during publishers' conference (who would admit it): 4
Regarding the book itself, I shall write something up separately. I had mixed feelings about it.
Elsewhere in the news, the two peanut-brained cats recognized me when I came home.
Cats: Oh, it's you. Hurrah! Hurrah! She's home! She's home!
Me: Why thank you. Lovely to see you again too. How about a hug?
Cats: In your dreams. Can we have some catnip now?
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-25 06:36 pm (UTC)These are the neat little stories that make it all so fascinating.
Of course, what would've been better at deterring pirates would've been a GLOBAL release at midnight UK time, instead of making us wait for 5+ more hours. There were pirated versions of chapter 1 up within 30 minutes...
no subject
Date: 2003-06-25 09:04 pm (UTC)The thought of trying to pull off a global timed concurrent laydown is a little mindboggling. Would require maybe a Synchronicus Spell.
But personally, I think the printer was wrong: I doubt the publishers really cared too much about piracy--not with a first printing of 8.5 million and fans whose personal loyalty to the author is cast-iron. With those numbers (and 5 million sold in the first 48 hours), you could afford some leakage and never notice it. But it was a brilliant marketing game: it heightened desire to the point of frenzy, even among casual HP readers. It kept parents from being upset at other kids' parents getting it first. It got everyone through the school year before it was issued. It made everyone feel treated (relatively) democratically. It bought immense goodwill, instead of the usual undercurrent of resentment when a blockbuster is launched.
On the plane on Saturday, normal adults were running up and down the aisle asking each other who they thought would die.
What's curious is that they printed domestically, not in, say, Taiwan or Singapore. Domestic US printing is substantially more expensive, usually. I'm guessing that they cut some serious deals with the US printers (it's been a really bad year for printers), and were worried about controlling leaks at overseas presses. Or it many simply have been the insane logistics of such a big print run with such a tight pub date.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-02 03:58 pm (UTC)Hee. Life is more fun with secret shipping.
Printer: Well, I'll just say this: I dunno if Harry's gonna save the world or not, but he single-handedly rescued the publishing industry worldwide in 2003.
Me: Yeah; last year it was Frodo.
And this year...me! *goes back to subvolcano evil lair armed with with charts and funny-smelling marker*