QUILLBLOG

Fun with Press Releases, or, the latest on the Harry Potter leaks

The Good Ship Harry Potter Information Lockdown continues to spring holes and take on water; now U.S. customers and media outlets have obtained actual physical copies of the book, and a couple — such as The New York Times and the Baltimore Sun – have already posted reviews. It’s worth noting here that neither review contained anything in the way of spoiler content. Nonetheless, as Reuters reports, J.K. Rowling is furious and her British publisher, Bloomsbury, is “very sad.” Aw. And here’s the latest from Canada’s own Raincoast Books:

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM RAINCOAST BOOKS

(Vancouver , July 19, 2007) It has now been confirmed by Scholastic Inc, the U.S. publisher of Harry Potter that there have been early sales in the United States of a small number of copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

In light of this highly regrettable situation, Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher, would like to take this opportunity to assure Canadian fans that books in Canada remain strictly embargoed. We at Raincoast, along with our partners in 93 other countries, re-affirm our commitment to robustly support the embargo time of one minute past midnight local time on July 21, in order to preserve the magic for the children and adult readers of Harry Potter.

We would like to thank our customers and suppliers again for their full support given in so many different ways. We would also like to thank the media for their own observance of, and strict policing of, the embargo to preserve the secrecy of the plot for the readers of Harry Potter.

JK Rowling said today, ‘I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children, who wanted to reach Harry’s final destination by themselves, in their own time. I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry’s last adventure for fans.”

Jamie Broadhurst
VP Marketing, Raincoast Books

Maybe it’s just Quillblog, but the line thanking us media types for our own “strict policing of the embargo” gives us the willies. We happen not to be interested in posting spoilers, but we don’t remember being deputized.