Sunday, July 22, 2007

Things I've Learned From Selling Harry Potter

1. People who are into it are suspicious of those who are not. They shut down and back away; won't look you in the eye.

2. I began to think to myself by the end of the night that maybe I should buy one. It's not because I would read it right away, and it's not because I think it'll become a collector's edition anytime soon - they printed so many millions of them. It's because they became a commodity like a cell phone or an ipod - you simply must have one! What, you don't have one yet? You're a holdout.

3. Only one person asked for it by its full name. "Hi, do you have a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?" I laughed. He said, "why are you laughing?" I told him that most others truncated it. "The new Harry Potter book?" "Harry Potter?" "Harry?" These were the timid ones.

4. People from every fashion, age- and income-range of the Anglo-Saxon diaspora are seeking out this book.

5. I wish I lived in a big, spooky castle where I could creep through damp hallways with a candelabrum and then arrive at a stony, tapestried room, where I would then sit and read James and the Giant Peach.

6. As a bookseller, there has been and is no other thing in the store that is sold with the same ferocity as This. (Well, one thing - but I won't go into that). This becomes the opposite of the "forest for the trees" thing.

7. Many people deny themselves sleep.

2 comments:

baystar23 said...

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things i learned from working the breakdown of book release of harry potter (and the deathly hallows):

1. i stll don't know what a "hallows" is. no sir, no clue.

2. you really shouldn't be standing near the meathead older brother that mocks harry potter out loud, when standing among the superfans dressed up and amped up on caffine.

3. if you tear down the decorative trees, pillows, tables, dry-ice chamberpots, and enchanted column coverings that people are sitting on or under or standing next two, both children and adults with get angry, pout, cry, and/or cast a spell on you.

4. you're really not supposed to help facilitate or condone muggle/wizard hookups. it's just too much fabric and explaining.

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lefty librarian said...

I worked in a bookstore when Madonna's SEX book came out. Now that was insanity. Ferocious Madonna fans in South Florida? Imagine the carnage!