[rushking]

If so, what kind of story will it be?

[Macklyn]

Harry potter books are like the latest pop-star.

They've been backed by huge PR marketing campaigns.

Put enough money into advertising/PR campaigns and you could sell canned farts to the teeny-bop masses.

Flying broomsticks and magic wands? Please!

It's like every childrens bed-time story gone MTV.

[Anomander1]

I thought Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials might have had a good go, what with the upcoming movies, the theatre production and it appearing on some school syllabus. If it wasn't for Potter Pullman might be even_more popular.

I reckon it will have to be another young/adult series, having broad appeal. Now widely recognised, does Rowling have any plans for other future series I wonder?

[ronso_rage]

Harry potter books are like the latest pop-star.

They've been backed by huge PR marketing campaigns.

Put enough money into advertising/PR campaigns and you could sell canned farts to the teeny-bop masses.

Flying broomsticks and magic wands? Please!

It's like every childrens bed-time story gone MTV.

What about the fact that while maybe not extremely well written they're enjoyable as a light and simple read?
The 1st book was never backed by huge PR marketing campaigns and it kick started the whole series!
They were hardly advertised untill the movies came out and by then they were still really popular.
Get off the "I hate Harry Potter lolz, commercialised, blah, blah" bandwagon that seems so popular with the faux intellectuals and wannabe matures.
It's getting old.

[Macklyn]

I've read the first two.

Well, the first one and the next half.
Basically shaking my head in amusement.
I found almost too much in them to be concept copies of old stories.

Sure I can see why kids today might like them, not having parents or grandparents around to tell them the old classic tales that I heard growing up.

Flying broomsticks?

Couldn't it have at least been a flying Oreck XL?

I wouldn't have touched or even seen this thread had you posted it in the JK Rawlings section, but, well, here it is.

[FitzChivalry]

I haven't read those books, but i think they are so successful because they are read by non-fantasy genre readers too, which is pretty rare for a fantasy book. The question that should be asked is why non-fantasy genre readers like that series and dislike other fantasy series?
Don't get me wrong, i don't want everyone to start reading fantasy books, i like how it safely lies in the realm of geeks.

[Bond]

Harry potter books are like the latest pop-star.

They've been backed by huge PR marketing campaigns.

Put enough money into advertising/PR campaigns and you could sell canned farts to the teeny-bop masses.

Flying broomsticks and magic wands? Please!

It's like every childrens bed-time story gone MTV.
A lot of money has been spent on a lot of things; however, not everything that has a huge marketing budget becomes successful or makes money. Simply look at all the big budget Hollywood movie flops.

It's also strange to level this complaint against the Harry Potter series. It is a series whose popularity was first spread largely by word of mouth. The big marketing push only came later.


I've read the first two.

Well, the first one and the next half.
Basically shaking my head in amusement.
I found almost too much in them to be concept copies of old stories.

Sure I can see why kids today might like them, not having parents or grandparents around to tell them the old classic tales that I heard growing up.

Flying broomsticks?

Couldn't it have at least been a flying Oreck XL?


I'd be interested to hear what the old classic tales you heard growing up would be that HP is concept copies of. I see the Oz books and something like The Box of Delights as possible inspirations. I also read that Tom Brown's Schooldays (haven't read personally but am thinking it's akin to something like The Green Years) and Dianne Wynne Jones are similar in certain respects. Also heard mention of The Phoenix and the Carpet and Enid Blyton books. More recently there are series like Redwall, Lemony's Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, and His Dark Materials that should be HP's competition in the children's literature department. Nevertheless Harry Potter I think stands out.

[phil_geo]

I checked Wikipedia, and The Lord of the Rings is right up there with Harry Potter on a per book basis, and Chronicles of Narnia is in the same order of magnitude. And (mostly because it has over 200 books in the series) the Star Wars series has well outsold the Harry Potter series, by a factor of two.

So one way to have a huge number of books sold is to write a huge number of books in the series.

[Barbarossa]

I checked Wikipedia, and The Lord of the Rings is right up there with Harry Potter on a per book basis, and Chronicles of Narnia is in the same order of magnitude. And (mostly because it has over 200 books in the series) the Star Wars series has well outsold the Harry Potter series, by a factor of two.

So one way to have a huge number of books sold is to write a huge number of books in the series.

Since the star wars series is by lots of authors i wouldn't count it. If you see it your way Pratchetts discworld would come close though.

But on a per book basis, the anwer to the title question is:
Probably yes, but not any time soon. It will probably be decades till a series sells that well. (LOTR and Narnia needed 50 years to get the numbers Rawling reached in ten years)

[redtryton]

I would say no. I don't think the potter books are going to fade either. I think they're going to continue to sell for a very long time. There really is just some kind of magic in these books. I mean there has to be. To get that many people that don't really know and/or like fantasy to begin with to pick these books up, there just has to be something extra there.

Honestly, I don't get how a lot of people gripe about the potter books. It's not taking ANYTHING away from fantasy books, it's just bringing tons more readers who may end up reading other books which may end up fueling future authors of more books for us to read. Sounds like a win/win to me. :D