Today was Friday.  If you are at all familiar with the book (or music) world, you would think that it has been days since new books were released or that it is days from the next day that books are released.

That is because Tuesday is the new release day in the book and music realms.

Except when it is not.

Just when we have trained customers to only expect a new title on Tuesdays, someone has to go and change it.  Usually that occurs when a REALLY BIG NAME AUTHOR decrees it.  You might ask, who can wield such power?

Well, SHE who created Harry Potter, for one.

Most people, well, most muggles anyways, will probably remember that many a bookstore had fun and exciting midnight release parties when the last few Harry Potter titles were released.  When the stores held these parties, J.K. Rowling and her publisher were able to decide many small details that normally have no attention paid to them whatsoever.

For instance, while the boxes of books were delivered to the store days in advance, not a single box was allowed to be opened.  All booksellers were warned: open a box before midnight on release night and be ready to find yourself a new job.  In fact, no photos were to be taken of the boxes.  That's right, we weren't even allowed to take a photo of the outside of the boxes.  Which seems a bit strange, but, when you're J.K. Rowling and have created Harry Potter and the millions of dollars in sales that came with him, no bookseller would ever say no to you.  So our huge pile of boxes was wrapped in plastic wrap until a hour or two before midnight.

At that time, we were tasked with getting those boxes from the back room of the store up to the front of the building where the registers were, all the while trying to stop all those muggles from taking pictures of those boxes.  I'm fairly certain that will be my closest run in with the paparazzi.

All day customers had been arriving at the store and receiving wristbands that differentiated when they got to line up.  By 11:30pm, the line was officially forming.  By 11:55, the energy emanating off the crowd was almost overwhelming.  I was concerned what would happen if our registers crashed at 12:01...would we have a full-fledged riot on our hands?!

At 11:59, my manager yelled out the time.  With 30 seconds left, everyone started counting down together.  And at 12:00am, the twelve registers in our store rang out the first copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Sometime after 1am, the crowd was on its way home and the employees were allowed to purchase their copies.  Within that one hour, we sold through countless boxes and even those empty boxes were taken off our hands.  The fans wanted anything and everything we could give them that had to do with Harry Potter.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on Saturday July 21st, 2007, which meant the first sales could be processed at 12:00am Friday evening, which is of course technically Saturday morning.  That weekend I had no friends.

Because everyone I knew was reading the final installment in Harry's journey. Literally everyone.  

Except for me.

Yup, I've actually never read them.    

So, anyways, SHE who brought the world Harry Potter released a new book this week.

Yesterday.

Thursday.

And it has nothing to do with Harry Potter.  And it is not a kids book.

So the publishing world waits.  Will J.K. Rowling still retain the power she now has after this book's sales have been tallied?



**I should also note that J.K. Rowling still controls details connected to the Harry Potter series.  Earlier this year, the e-book versions were finally made available to fans.  But to obtain them, one had to purchase them through her own website.  Any attempt to buy them through a different site would redirect customers to her site.  So five years after the last book in the series came out, she can still decide exactly what she wants to happen with her creation.  This could allow future big name authors to wield the same power.  I bet publishers are waiting to see how that plays out as well.**



 

At the beginning of June, I went down to the Cape to have a yard sale with my parents and sister.  We cleared a lot of our junk out.  I mean, our treasure.  The whole "one man's trash is another man's treasure" thing.  Perhaps the best repurposing we were privy to learn about had to do with an old volleyball net.  A man saw it haphazardly thrown in a box with a couple of dog runs and asked for the price.  When I declared $1, it was already in the man's arms while his hands reached for his wallet.  He had immediately thought outside of the box and recognized the old volleyball net as a trellis for his newly planted cucumbers.

                                               My sister "merchandising" the books for sale.

What if other people thought outside of the box a bit more?  My customers would be less likely to get an annoyed or disappointed look when I tell them we have no free bookmarks.  Kids would look less crestfallen when parents shake their heads no to the bookmarks picked out from our display.

Some people of course do think outside this bookmarked box.  The receipt is the easiest discovery.  Sometimes a napkin from the cafe or maybe even a sugar packet.  I'll often use a piece of newly received mail, though I prefer the personal kind to bills or junk mail.  In January and February, my bookmark is likely to be one of my siblings' christmas cards.  Nothing beats opening a book to my niece and nephew's faces or my sister's artwork.

                                  A postcard for a bookmark: from Shakespeare and Company.

                                    In case I ever get amnesia, this postcard should help me out.

                                                A sticker from a coworker fits the bill, too.

                            Sometimes I just need to find a bigger book to fit a hand-knit bookmark.

Though sometimes I do use actual bookmarks and sometimes they come to me from other parts of the world.  This is from Scotland, I believe.