As the English-language edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix continues to sell in record numbers, foreign-language publishers are encountering a tricky reality. The book's popularity has meant that publishers must fight illegal translations and a hunger for the English edition, while translation schedules put the release dates for their own editions as much as six months away.
Perhaps the most complicated situation has unfolded in Germany, where the Bloomsbury edition has already sold a reported 450,000 copies (helped along by discounting; imports are exempt from German net pricing laws). Publisher Carlsen was so worried about English-language sales that in the winter it sued Amazon.de for selling the Bloomsbury edition, saying that because the pound's worth relative to the euro fluctuated, different customers were getting different discounts, a violation of German law. It won a temporary injunction but it still must face what experts say could be difficult terrain. Making things worse is the number of informal translation sites that have sprung up on the Web.
Meanwhile, Chinese publisher People's Literature Publishing House has sold about 5,000 copies of the English version. That number is small relative to the 800,000-copy first-printing it has scheduled for October 1, but the publisher may have a bigger concern: illegal translations (bootlegged copies of the previous four Potter books are pervasive in the country). The publisher's piracy anxiety prompted it to send a letter to the government's National Copyright Administration ahead of publication, asking it to crack down. According to the house's Sun Shunlin, the publisher will also use new printing methods in its editions to prevent the Chinese edition from being pirated.
Publishers seem to have less to worry about in South America, where English-language editions haven't always been prevalent. In Buenos Aires, Ediciones Kel was one of the only Argentinean bookstores to sell Phoenix on June 21. It sold out 100 copies in less than half an hour and won't get more until mid-July. The big Spanish hit is expected early in 2004, when Spain's giant Salamandra will release more than six million Spanish-language copies in Latin America and Spain, as well as the U.S. (where Scholastic will distribute).
Even six months, though, can seem like a fast-paced translation schedule. According to the Japan Times, it could be as much as a year before publisher Sayzansha will bring out the Japanese edition. Meanwhile, Amazon.jp was barraged with bookbuyers—the site broke pre-order sales records for any book with its English-language version.
Finally, in France, as many as 40,000 copies of the English edition sold, making the book the first foreign-language bestseller in France. But it shouldn't make too much of a dent in publisher Gallimard's plans—the house's 750,000-copy print run is reportedly the largest of any frontlist release in the country's history.
