Just came across an article that I thought some people here might find interesting. Don't panic, it doesn't contain spoilers even though the headline may make it appear that way.

It's an article that talks about spoilers for the book and the hype surrounding it's release. It was this bit that I thought was particularly controversial though -



Rather scathing, isn't it? The whole article is here if you'd like to take a look.

I suppose a small, cynical part of me has to agree to a certain extent, but I still think that the main purpose in her being so tight lipped really is to prevent people being spoiled after waiting so long.

What does everyone think?

Cripes! That's a bit below the belt isn't it. Yeah, ofcourse a lot of it is about the mighty dollar, and yeah JK has given little snippets away to whet our appetites, but she's allowed isn't she.

I don't think she had a hidden agenda when she mentioned the two die thing and as for releasing the cover art, well what does it really give away?

I am not that familiar with this site, but I assume that it is one known to post any piece of gossip it can lay it's hand on that might attract a few readers.

But like you say Louise, that cynic resides in me too but I do think she's genuine in her wanting fans who have waited for this book for so long, to be protected from spoilers.

Note: there are NO spoilers in this post whatsoever.



Ahh most interesting...

That reminds me of something.. and forgive me in advance, Louise, for drawing this off topic and commandeering this thread for a moment for my message.

Oh noes! Leaks!:

We all have heard of the recent major leak against Deathly Hallows as announced by Scholastic. If I am not mistaken, this 'severe breach' was most likely the reason for the tightened security on this site... that's the way I see it anyway. Naturally I was curious with these leaks... got everyone's backs up.. except JK Rowling, it seems. I will, naturally, not release any of the spoilers... but I will say that they consisted of the first little bit of Chapter One, all of the Chapter Titles, a small bit from the middle of the book, and the entirety, I believe, of the Epilogue. The leak was in the form of scans of the book. It looked as if they plopped the book on an office copier and hastily did it.

A Literary Conspiracy?:

I do not know if these spoilers are real or not.. they seem legitimate.. perhaps too legitimate. I will warn you all against looking for them very soon, but for now we talk of conspiring and the like. I was wondering today, as I dwelled over the spoilers I saw during my third viewing of the 5th movie, if all of this is yet another ploy. The book publishers have been known to copyright faux titles and names and such to throw the fans off, right? Well.. in light of the recent severe book leak, I wonder if Scholastic fabricated a perfect looking "Deathly Hallows" and "leaked" it in order to throw people off about any real leaks.. or to satiate people enough to NOT look for more material to leak. I really hope this is the case... it would be a very good idea and also explain why JK Rowling is smashing the "lawsuit-hammer" on everyone.

You see, in light of JJ Abrams top-secret film trailer for the movie (codenamed) Cloverfield, Paramount implemented a huge task force attacking site like Google and YouTube for releasing illegal versions of this topsecret trailer. Obviously some slip through the grips but overall the effort was effective.

Why isnt JK Rowling doing this? TONS of sites have these scans on.. and you can find them on the FIRST page of a Google Search. This leads me to believe that it may all be planned.

An Urgent Warning!:

I realize EVERY decent Harry Potter site on the Web is shouting about not posting spoilers and the consequences of doing such a thing. I am going to one up there warnings and beg each and every one of you to not look for the spoilers and certainly not read/view them. Speaking from personal experience.. it leaves you feeling horrible. Not at the outcome.. but its a sense of guilt (I described it like cheating). Even if the spoilers, as I suspect, are a ploy from the Publishers it still is not a good feeling to have while waiting for the LAST Potter Book. So please.. do not look at them... I am trying to spare you from the way I feel now.


Thanks!

~Albus

OhMy[mod edit]Gosh This article is loads of riffraff. I personally think that Stuart Heritage, the writer of this article, doesn't like the book, and JKR at all.



What is he thinking, telling them readers that there's a lack of excitement for the last book? Everyone is one tenterhooks to find out and everyone's counting down the days and making plans whether to sleep over at the bookstore or fall in line early in the morning. He's forgetting Umbridge's golden lesson: I must not tell lies.



It looks like he's making JK Rowling sound like she's a money-loving author. How horrible.

Mod Edit: Using swear words, even in the form you did, is not allowed on the forums. Please check out the rules again. Thanks

I didn't read the spoilers you are talking about (thankfuly! ) and I don't have any intention to do so (you can relax now, Albus ).

Now, about the ploy Albus was speaking, I think that it would certainly be effective for preventing real leaks, it would be a really clever and original measure. And it makes sense that JKR isn't responding at this massive leak. That seemed odd to me too...

However, wouldn't this ploy be causing a loss to the publishers? Maybe some people that read the spoilers aren't buying the book anymore because they think they already know what it's going to happen in the book. I know this wouldn't be the case of the majority of the buyers, but it could happen, couldn't it? They are taking a risk if they are indeed doing this. Even though, it could be the reverse, this could also be seen as free publicity, if it's true that it is a ploy...

As for JKR, I think she's a sensitive person which understands how spoilers affect the satisfaction of the readers and cares for her readers, after all they are the reason she is now so famous and rich and she owes them respect (that's a form of respect too, don't you think?).

On the other hand, even though she is so rich she probably doesn't want to lose an opportunity to earn more money and she tryes to prevent spoilers also because they could mean less money for her.

I think that the care for her readers and the earnings are linked together and are inseparable and she probably sees them that way too, but I don't think that she is a hypocrite pretending to care about the readers aiming at the money, I think that she is sincere when she says she cares about the satisfaction of her readers. I think that it's a way of showing them respect and it's more a proof that she wants that in return of their money they receive a high quality product, unspoiled by any means.

By the way, keep up the good work in preventing spoilers on this site, guys!

Oooh not to harsh mate

I really don't think that JKR wold care if you know, she didn't make as much money on this as the other books if spoilers got out, I mean, well.. she has enough money doesn't she? She's richer than the Queen! I think she genuinly doesn't want the people who really have grown up with Harry to be spoiled. And I know what she means, I've been reading the book since I was about 7 or 8, which is 9 years! I wouldn't want the ending to be spoiled for me! I've waited for 9 years of my life for this moment, and so have so many other people all around the world!!

How does releasing the cover art spoil it for us, or telling us that there are two that die that maybe she didn't want to. The cover art is the cover art, it depicts the generalisation of the novel, not gives us spoilers! And two die! Oh my gosh... I would have never guessed that with all the deaths in the more recent books that there would be more now? God, everyone knows that this is going to be Harry's final battle and that people are going to die! This is Voldemort we're talking about... He's not going to have a battle and not kill people!

I also find that article quite insulting, not only to JKR, but to ourselves as well. I mean come on! 'thus ruining the surprise for millions of children and adults who haven't got onto reading grown-up books yet.' Harry Potter certainly isn't the most adult of literature, but it is one heck of a piece of literature. It doesn't matter if it isn't an adult book. Its aimed at us! The younger generation, not people like my mum who read crime novels and what this guy calls 'adult' books. Also, just because we do read Harry Potter doesn't mean that we don't read more 'mature' novels too. I mean, using myself as an example, I read Harry Potter - A fine piece of literature, I read teen books like 'Diary of a crush', But I'm also very well read with things like Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, as well as things like Dickens and many more! Besides, what is so wrong with HP?... I'm sorry but I really dislike that article... I mean, come on, no need to give us the sugar coated version ! *grr* *sorry...I'm too angry sometimes...*



I must totally agree with you here. No excitement. If there is no excitement for the last book, well them I'm JKR herself! Fans, millions all around the world are waiting anxiously for the release of this long awaited novel!

x

In my opinion that article is horribly harsh. Pesonally I do feel at times that the entire security thing has been ridiculously overdone, but in the end I'm sure it will be worth it. I have been waiting for these answers for 7 years now, and I would hate to find out what happens through some extremely sad person who leaks spoilers out on the internet. True, alot of the measure are probably being imposed to protect sales of the books, yet these measures will also serve to improve our enjoyment of the book. I hope and I trust that all of us HP fans will have enough respect for the rest of our fellows fans, to not spoil the fun for anyone. But unfortunately they are elements who will do just that, and we must do everything to guard ourselves against them.

On a completely unrelated note however: just 4 days to go!!!

Honestly, at this point, everyone who plans to buy the book is going to buy it, regardless of whether or not it has been spoiled for them. It won't cost JKR (or anyone else) any money if the book is spoiled before its release. I'd buy it even if I knew the ending, wouldn't you? If you've read the first six and own them, well, you need to read the seventh and own it, right? (And at this point, what's another tens of millions to her? That's like me getting $100. It makes me smile, but it's not going to change my financial situation.)

As to her motivation, it's clearly not money. I think her main motivation really is to prevent people from being disappointed by knowing the ending before they get there - but I sort of get where he's coming from with taking herself too seriously.

It's one thing to not want it spoiled, to protect the book carefully at the publisher and in distribution centers, but public pleadings do seem a tiny bit self-important. I mean it's great to post on your website "Please don't spoil it for others", but it also encourages those who plan to spoil. If you want to spoil the book, you're twisted. So, being told not to do it, only encourages you.

I'm a cynic in general, so I know I'm probably being a little harsh...

No, I don't think you're being too harsh. I know exactly what you mean. I like the books - I wouldn't have stuck around for as long as I have if I didn't - but JKR does occasionally do and say things that really bug me.

Her mentioning of the Madelaine case again bugged me this week because it seems so awfully contrived to ask booksellers to put posters up so that people queueing for the books won't be able to avoid it. I can't help but wonder behind her motivation for that.

And the public pleading is, as you say, a trifle self-important. Yes, we'd all love to avoid spoilers and we can, if we really want to. Heck, all the staff are busting a gut right now to protect this forum from those who would like so spoil it for our members and I 100% back that policy. There's nothing wrong with asking on her site that people try to be protected from spoilers, purely because for the younger ones who read these books, they're going to be heartbroken to learn that Harry dies, or Ron or Hermione dies, or Lupin dies, or it was all a dream after all or whatever. To the older and more mature reader, they won't really care all that much. It is only a book, after all.

But honestly, it's not exactly life or death, is it? So a few things leak out...I'll still buy the book, as will millions of others.

Perhaps the issue is more about copyright law than spoilers. If the book is due to be published on a certain date and people breach that law, then obviously we're talking about a different thing.

I'm trying to believe it's just her realizing that she can use her celebrity for good. As an American, I don't really know much about this case (other than there's a missing little girl and that JKR has taken special interest in it) but I'm not as bothered by this.



I was actually thinking this. I love these books. I'm nearly 32-years-old. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love them. Do I think that she has written the best literature of the 20th century? No. But, in my personal opinion, she has created one of the most vivid fantasy worlds in recent history - and that she'll go down in history for being one of the storytellers of the 21st century...

But, these books aren't the cure for cancer, AIDS, world hunger.



That's possible, but was there this much hype at the release of OoTP or HBP? I don't really remember, but I was involved in opening a restaurant and in a huge project at PBS when those two books were released so I didn't have the time to pay attention that I do now since I'm unemployed... (But, it appears that we'll have my health in control in the next week or so, hopefully, and maybe I won't be unemployed much longer...)

I think you're right that it's for those who've been waiting ages for this ending. I respect the need to keep silent. There was an article in the Sunday Daily Herald about a fan’s determined efforts to keep the ending unspoiled. Each book was ‘ruined’ for him by well meaning friends, the internet and some killjoy screeching DD’s Dead at 12:01am! Apparently he’s secluded himself hermit-style and will have the book delivered to the house.

Of course, years from now some kid will be rolling their eyes when you tell them how surprised people were by the ending!