Harry Potter Trailer breakdown...

...over here at Empire Online...very excited... ;)

Hilariously, the video game production company are actually going to have to do some serious work for a change, rather than just dust off the same old Hogwarts brushes and add some embellishments... ;)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Got it!

So it was waiting in the outside cupboard when we got back on Sunday (and had survived the storms intact, I am pleased to report)...I'm now on chapter seven (and enjoying every word)...Flyingpops is displaying an amazing amount of self control by waiting until I am finished before she makes a start (which is good, no fighting)... ;)

According to the Telegraph, it sold enough copies over the weekend to be the fastest selling book of all time (in the UK at least), putting it (amazingly) in roughly 1 household out of 10...it's also interesting to note that although it was only released in English, it sold a quarter of a million copies in Holland/Belgium (selling out completely), nearly 400,000 copies in Germany and 100,000 in India...!

I wonder what she is going to write next?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Now on eBay!

...and now copies are for sale on eBay...apparently some online "etailer" shipped over a thousand copies on Tuesday by mistake...and they are actually selling (there are only 2 days to go for cris'sake!) for upwards of £120...poor Bloomsbury...still, at least this is the last book they are going to have to worry about... ;)


I N S A N I T Y

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Leaked

So it got leaked, only the second of the books to have done so (before release day), but what a waste of all that money spent on prevention - £20 million was it? The press is all abuzz...despite the fact that the copy released is pretty bad (someone turned every page and took a wobbly shot with a low-res point-and-shoot, believe it or not)...perhaps the culprit *could* be tracked down (by a dedicated investigator) with a combination of hand-matching, carpet matching (it's definitely an office carpet), and clues from the objects that appear around the periphery in many of the shots (something circular and gold in the top left hand corner, diet coke can, special brew can(?) and on the right perhaps the base of an office lamp, or the corner of a buff brown bag with a black trim)...But it's already a colossal best seller, before it even hits the shelves, so I don't suppose it's really worth the bother (apart from to save a few red faces at the top)...I mean, no one is going to seriously think about cancelling their purchase off the back of this leak...

Anyway, shortly after all the low-res photos appeared, some kind soul turned them all into a nice, single part PDF document, and within 48 hours, some other kind soul had translated the whole thing into German(!)...and I'm guessing it won't stop there either...The entire rationale for not to producing a digital version of this book was to stop precisely this kind of thing happening...didn't really work, did it...? And all this effort, all this free work these people have put in to getting this thing out there...especially the translators, it's quite staggering, remember - no-one is paying them to do this...

All I'm asking is, are there any lessons the publisher could learn here?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 4 days to go

Yep, only 4 days to go, and guess where I am going to be? And guess where my pre-ordered book is going to be? Yes, I'll be at Bug Jam, and my book, no doubt, will be in the cupboard by the front door...getting damp... >:(

Still, it could be worse, I could have intended to buy my copy from Asda...this *really* isn't the moment to start a dispute with the publishers, guys!! ;)