The Harry Potter Halo

What are kids clamoring for these days? Believe it or not, it's hardcover fiction. Sure, young people have always been drawn to great books, from Charlotte's Web to Redwall to The Golden Compass. But since last fall, middle-grade and young-adult readers, including both girls and-gasp!-boys, have been buying and reading new hardcovers like never before. And, according to many children's book experts, at least one catalyst for this trend is the unprecedented success of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.

With 800,000 copies in print and 30 weeks spent on the New York Times bestseller list, the first title, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, published in the U.S. in September 1998, is nothing less than a phenomenon. Rowling's fantastic, adventurous tale about a young wizard-in-training (as well as its recent sequel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) has captured the imaginations of kids and adults alike, many of whom have been eager to buy the books in hardcover. 'Kids are wanting to get the book and wanting to keep it,' said Colleen Shipman, manager and children's book buyer at The Book Rack/Children's Pages in Winooski, Vt. 'Parents are learning to appreciate the immediacy of buying the latest book in hardcover and the importance of adding books to a child's permanent collection. The phrase `we'll wait for the paperback' is falling by the wayside.'

Demand for the Harry Potter titles is reflected not only in bookstore sales, but in library circulation as well. Young readers have checked them out from school and public libraries in very healthy numbers. 'The first Harry Potter title was so popular, we bought 173 copies of Chamber of Secrets,' said Judy Nelson, head children's librarian in the Bellevue (Wash.) Public Library. 'We've got 730 people waiting to read it.'

Other libraries across the country are experiencing similar traffic. 'I just read a posting on the CCBC listserv where 300 kids were on a library wait-list for Chamber of Secrets,' said Arthur Levine, editor of the U.S. editions of the Harry Potter books, which were published under his imprint at Scholastic. 'We couldn't do anything to create that kind of response,' he commented. 'That's kid-to-kid. They can get really passionate about a great book.'

On Harry's Coattails

The word-of-mouth recommendations of Sorcerer's Stone began flying fast and furious upon the book's U.S. release. Originally published in the U.K. by Bloomsbury in July 1997, Rowling's work garnered both praise and popularity well before landing stateside. And once American readers got a taste of Harry's first adventure, they were eager for more. The frenzy led U.S. readers to seek the U.K. edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (released in July 1998) via online booksellers and trips to London prior to the sequel's scheduled American release. Demand was so high, in fact, that Scholastic moved up the publication of its edition from September to June 1999. Chamber of Secrets quickly joined Sorcerer's Stone on the bestseller lists, and has 900,000 copies in print to date.

But the mega-watt power of Harry Potter spells more than just big money for its author and publishers. Rowling's books have spurred significant numbers of readers and would-be readers to visit libraries and bookstores in search of other great reads. And it's this halo of success that has those in children's book circles beaming. 'We're very excited,' said Judith Rovenger, youth services consultant for the New York's Westchester County public library system. 'There's lots of buzz among kids and parents. Anytime there is a publishing phenomenon like Harry Potter it's good for children's books in general. More and more adults are discovering children's books and saying `Hey, this is good stuff!' ''

Booksellers and librarians have happily capitalized on the success of the Harry Potter books, using readers' interest in those titles as a bridge to other books. 'Kids come in and tell me they loved the book,' Shipman said, 'and I can say `I liked it, too.' That connection makes kids a little more willing to listen to and trust my other recommendations.' Shipman said she directs Potter fans not only to other fantasy titles but to family stories as well. Rovenger spoke of similar experiences. 'Kids are initiating the asking about books now, whereas the librarian usually initiates that conversation,' she said.

On the retail front, Harry Potter has seemingly bolstered some buyers' confidence, especially in the chain stores. 'We've seen more willingness on the part of the big chains that were always reluctant to take hardcover fiction,' said Brenda Bowen, v-p and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children's Books. As an example, Bowen comments, 'Our title The Raging Quiet by Sheryl Jordan has gone out in very good numbers in part because booksellers are looking for what readers will want to read next, after Harry Potter. All our sales reports are indicating that buyers are now trying titles in hardcover that they normally wouldn't.'

Elise Howard, editor-in-chief of Avon Books for Young Readers, agrees. 'We're in an unusual situation because our hardcover program is only a year old. But we are definitely seeing retail taking a bigger interest in our hardcovers. Independents have always done so, but this is new for the chains,' she said. 'Retailers are awakening to the fact that if they can make it happen, hardcovers are a nice business. They're not writing those books off as purely an institutional sale anymore.'

Howard also cited an increase in consumer review activity for hardcovers, as well as a surge of interest from the chains in doing more creative hardcover fiction promotions. She noted that a holiday 1998 promotion in one of the large chains that included two hardcover sequels (Poppy & Rye by Avi, which now has 30,500 copies in print, and The Key to the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks, currently at 150,000 copies in print) was particularly successful.

According to Steve Geck, director of children's books for Barnes & Noble, hardcovers are riding high in his company's stores. 'Even before the buzz on Harry hit, we had planned a big hardcover fiction promotion for the holidays [in 1998], including Holes, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Bloomability and some other titles,' he said. 'Lots of people were already giving those books as gifts, and then the Harry Potter profile ran on NPR, which was the beginning of all the media attention. Since then this continues to be an exciting business for us.'

Geck reported that Barnes & Noble buyers are 'selectively taking more copies of a book. We look at [hardcover] titles that we would have taken four or five copies of and we say, `Let's take 10.' There is now a feeling that we can handsell these books more than in the past.'

He also believes that the stalwart support of teachers and librarians has played a key role in the current popularity of hardcover fiction. 'Teachers and librarians have always given real support to hardcover books by authors like Sharon Creech, Gary Paulsen and Avi. Whenever a new one comes out, they buy it.'

And Geck pointed out that an enthusiastic response to some of Barnes & Noble's outreach events suggests an increased interest in hardcovers as well. 'We have more teachers and librarians than ever shopping in our stores now,' he said. 'At some of our 'Educator Night' events we've had 300-400 attendees. It's very gratifying to know that we have become a part of their community.'

The country's robust economy has also had an effect on the fiction resurgence. Bowen of S&S noted that these days consumers are simply willing to spend more on books. 'We're feeling more confident about the price point that the public can bear,' she said. She believes that Scholastic's unjacketed hardcovers in the Dear America series, selling at $10.95 each, has helped ease more book buyers into the hardcover market over the past couple of years.

Bowen also stressed that the packaging of books has become increasingly important. 'One of the smart things Scholastic did was to go all-out design-wise and make Harry Potter a book you wanted to touch and feel and read,' she said. 'And I think people will want more books like that. We have to make our titles attractive in a way that says, `Buy this hardcover book.''

Quality Wins Out

Most children's book experts agree that the attention paid to the Harry Potter books is well-deserved, primarily because they are first and foremost works of quality fiction. 'History has shown that there has always been room for hardcover fiction to do well,' said Levine of Scholastic. 'The difficult thing is to get the books to the attention of the public. You can't artificially reproduce a phenomenon like Harry Potter. You can try any clever gimmick or throw any amount of money at a book, but if it's not a great book, it won't happen.'

Others in the field share that opinion. 'We can't try to ape Harry Potter,' Bowen said. 'What we can do is discover what's the next great book of its genre and then blow that out.' Nelson of the Bellevue Public Library commented, 'If it's a good title, it really d sn't matter if it's hardcover or paperback. Hardcovers won't ever replace paperbacks in popularity, because kids like to carry the paperbacks around. But as long as we see fun, engaging fiction, the hardcovers will continue to go out of the library.'

Though the hype may indicate otherwise, Harry Potter was hardly the only standout hardcover of the last couple of publishing seasons. Louis Sachar's Holes, in which a boy unravels a family secret while serving time at an unusual juvenile detention camp, won the 1999 Newbery Medal as well as the National Book Award in the Young People's Literature category. But perhaps even more exciting in the eyes of the children's book world, Holes has well exceeded the expected boost in sales that award winners typically experience, and continues to sell steadily. Other solid-selling, popular hardcovers of late have included Marlfox, the latest installment in Brian Jacques's Redwall series; Brian's Return, a sequel to Hatchet by Gary Paulsen; Karen Hesse's Newbery-winning Out of the Dust; and Newbery Honor titles Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine and Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff.

Certainly, no one can predict what the next children's-book phenom might be, other than to note that the third Harry Potter book is due out in September. For now, the children's book industry is happy to bask in Harry's glow, as it means also garnering attention for the entire spectrum of quality fiction titles being published. 'Everybody seems to be thrilled about Harry Potter and heartened that juvenile hardcover books can do that well,' Howard of Avon observed. 'We all wish we had Harry Potter on our list,' she added with a laugh. 'But if it happened once, maybe it can happen again.'