Book Sales For a Cause: Tales of Beedle And Bard Sales To Help Fund Children's Charity

Now I know we're not all rich like JK Rowling, and we don't have that great American Novel (or a tween version like Twilight whichever turns you on), but nevertheless doing something for a good cause is always uplifting.

I just read that sales of the volume of five fairy tales, with eight million copies in print worldwide, will help fund the Children's High Level Group (CHLG), a charity Rowling co-founded for Eastern European children vulnerable to autism.

What spurred this?

Four years ago JK Rowling was so shocked by a newspaper photograph of a small boy staring from his caged bed in a Czech care home that her first reaction was to turn the page. But, haunted by the image of Vasek Knotek (who was suffering from autism), the Harry Potter author went on to spearhead a multi-million-pound campaign to transform his and other children's lives across Eastern Europe.

It's nice to know some authors look for some meaning beyond personal gain. Darn! Now I have to go buy that book too.

Publishing a Collector's Edition: Learning From JK Rowling's Tales of Beedle and Bard

JK Rowling's "Tales of Beedle and Bard" started selling last December 4. The book soared to the top of the online bestsellers lists on Amazon.com and the Barnes&Noble Web site.

Rowling originally created only seven copies for friends, bound in Moroccan leather and embellished with silver talismans and mounted moonstones. One was put up for auction in 2007 and sold for $4 million to Amazon.com. Now it's available for public consumption. Yey for us!

Tales of Beedle and Bard was mentioned in the final installment of Harry Potter, the seventh book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and contains five fairy tales that helped resolve the last book as well as commentary (including extensive footnotes) by the great, late and gay Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his unique wizard's-eye perspective to the collection.

Discovered "among the many papers which Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives," the venerable wizard's ruminations on the Tales allow today's readers to place them in the context of 16th century Muggle society, even allowing that "Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles" during the era of witch hunts that would eventually drive the wizarding community into self-imposed exile. In fact, versions of the same stories told in wizarding households would shock many for their uncharitable treatment of their Muggle characters.

Professor Dumbledore also includes fascinating historical backstory, including tidbits such as the history and pursuit of magic wands, a brief comment on the Dark Arts and its practitioners, and the struggles with censorship that eventually led "a certain Beatrix Bloxam" to cleanse the Tales of "much of the darker themes that she found distasteful," forever altering the meaning of the stories for their Muggle audience. Dumbledore also allows us a glimpse of his personal relationship to the Tales, remarking that it was through "Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump" that "many of us [wizards] first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead."

The book retails for $12.99, but a $100 collector's edition has been offered exclusively on Amazon.com skyrocketed from 778,576 to 22 on the site's "Movers & Shaker's" list, which tracks the biggest gainers in sales rank.

This Collector's edition idea is great for authors and publishers. Once your book has gained enough momentum, the next best thing would be to offer it in "Collector's Edition." You can sell it for about ten times higher than the usual price. Here are some of Tales of Beedle and Bard's special features as a collector's edition:

• Exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction
• 10 additional illustrations not found in the Standard Edition
• Velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling’s signature
• Embellished book cover complete with metal skull, corners, and clasp; replica gemstones; and emerald ribbon
• Collector's edition also includes a set of 10 ready-for-framing prints of J.K. Rowling's illustrations
  

J.K. Rowling Speaks At Hogswart er Harvard

Harvard felt much like Hogwarts when their commencement exercise had none other than J.K. Rowling as main speaker.

It's weird when certain personalities are asked to speak in events like that. Harvard most of all has the most extravagant taste in celebrities, everyone from Paris Hilton to J.K. Rowling I suppose have guested there.

Nevertheless, even non-Harry Potter fans appreciated J.K. Rowling's message during the said affair, most of which devoted to the power of imagination, specifically the human ability to put oneself in another’s place. The author discussed her stint working for Amnesty International and how the letters sent to the office taught her about the horrors many suffered in distant places. Rowling then encouraged the graduates to use their intelligence and privilege to better the world.

J.K. Rowling Vs. Vander Ark - The Fight For Harry Potter Lexicon. To Publish Or Not To Publish?

It looks like the new Rowling case is a fan's passion carried too far. I do believe the the HP Lexicon site just wants to expound on the work of J.K. Rowling and in effect "be part" of the Harry Potter world, but J.K. Rowling does have a point about trying to stop it.

J.K. Rowling wants to be the supreme authority on Harry Potter as should be because she is the book's author. We should probably give her that. I think it's more a matter of integrity now rather than a case of copyright.

In the Reuters article below, both sides are mentioned as saying their piece with regards to whether the book should or should not be published. I think it shouldn't. Vander Ark should just respect J.K. Rowling's work by letting her write it. If he truly does admire her work then he should respect it as well. Say no to the money man!

Author J.K. Rowling said on Wednesday publication of an unofficial
encyclopedic companion to her Harry Potter books would "open the floodgates" and
threaten other authors.

The British author and Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.,
are suing independent U.S. publisher RDR Books, which plans to publish "The
Harry Potter Lexicon," a 400-page reference book written by Steve Vander Ark
based on his fan Web site (www.hp-lexicon.org).

"This case is about an author's right to protect their creation," Rowling, 42, told a New York court. "If this book is allowed to be published the floodgates will open."

"Are we, or are we not, the owners of our own work?" said the author of
the seven Harry Potter books that have sold about 400 million copies. "It's not
just my work that is endangered."

Rowling, estimated by the Sunday Times to be worth about $1 billion, said she was outraged her work was considered fair game because it was so popular.

She has called Vander Ark's book "sloppy, lazy" work, unlike other Harry Potter companion books already published, which added original commentary
and criticism.

An emotional Vander Ark, 50, wearing spectacles similar to those worn
by Harry Potter, said on Tuesday his book was intended to help readers and
celebrate Rowling's work. He denied accusations of plagiarism.

A lawyer for RDR books said the book by Vander Ark, a librarian who has
spoken at Harry Potter conferences in several countries, would promote Rowling's
series and not hurt sales. Two literary experts testified for each side on
whether Vander Ark copied too much text, citing works on authors like C.S. Lewis
and James Joyce.

In closing arguments, Dale Cendali, a lawyer for Rowling and Warner,
said the lexicon reproduced "tremendous amounts of text" without attribution.
"There has been no testimony that it would add anything new or original," she
said. "The lexicon is filled with errors."

But Anthony Falzone, a lawyer for RDR, said Rowling could not suppress
a book just because she thought it was no good. "Copyright law does not permit
an author to suppress a book because she doesn't like it," he said.

U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson urged the sides to settle, saying
the case reflected an emerging part of copyright law with no clear precedents.
"I may need a reference guide to this case," he joked. He is expected to
take several weeks to reach a decision.

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" By JK Rowling Sold For £1.95 million

Taking a break from looking around for self publishing opportunities, history was just made when handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling sold for £1.95 million at auction on Thursday. According to The Wall Street Journal, the buyer, London art agent Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, now has one of only seven copies of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," which is leather bound with silver mounts. The book (which previously featured as a fictional plot device in the last of Ms. Rowling's Harry Potter novels) had originally been expected to sell for about £50,000.


The standing-room-only crowd at Sotheby's auction house applauded as bidding topped the £1 million mark. The money will benefit The Children's Voice, a charity co-founded in 2005 by Ms. Rowling and Baroness Nicholson, a member of Britain's House of Lords.

For pictures and more detail on the purchase, here's link to a blog entry that describes it in full detail Tales of Beedle the Bard By JK Rowling Purchased by Amazon At $4M

The 8th Harry Potter Book - NOT Published?

For all book-lovers out there, J.K. Rowling added one more book to her Harry Potter series.
According to Publsher's Weekly, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the real-life incarnation of a collection of wizarding fairytales mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as a gift left to Hermione by Professor Dumbledore."

Apparently the book is handwritten and contains illustrations by Rowling. This has to be one of the most personal books ever written as according to J.K. Rowling - writing the book “has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years,” she told the AP.

Only seven copies of the title were printed, with a brown leather binding and elaborate silver and gemstone decorative accents. Reuters reported that in a dedication to the book, Rowling states, “Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years. This seventh copy will be auctioned; the proceeds to help institutionalized children who are in desperate need of a voice. So to whoever owns this book, thank you—and fair fortune be yours.”

Sotheby’s will auction the book December 13 with an opening price of $62,000. The winning bid will be donated to Rowling’s charity The Children’s Voice.

I hope whoever gets the last of the 7 copies, will post the book online for the rest of us humble-folk who will probably never lay a hand on it.

I'm willing to bet though that time will come, this book will be published - especially with the growing demand and hype. Maybe that's the point of all this - to make some noise and establish the relative demand of the book - and then they can publish it full tilt, because right now I still see some copies of the Deathly Hallows already at something like 10% off in some bookstores. Guess that's how traditional publishing works.