Harry Potter: Lexicon

I took a research sabbatical yesterday, but it's good to be back. Trying to delve more deeply into the Harry Potter phenomenon, I encountered this article:

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070531/harry-potter-park.htm

"Harry Potter Land" is coming to Florida.

That amazes me. How many theme parks are based on, of all things, a novel? As a writer, you rest assured of your financial success when you've got Universal Studios on the phone.

What has J.K. Rowling done to appeal to so many people?

One technique I've noticed is that Mrs. Rowling expands the English lexicon. In any fantasy world, even one as modern as Harry Potter's, readers expect to encounter new words that they don't find in ordinary life. Thus, simple, creative terms like "muggle," "mud-blood," and "quidditch" have particular marketing appeal, and with the novel's success, they've become as commonplace as "Big Mac," "McNuggets," and "quarter-pounder with cheese."

I mention McDonalds because, wherever they set up grills, they invent new language to attract customers.

Apparently novels can ride on the same strategy.

Harry Potter: Only four keys to success?

Over the past few days, I've been researching the marketing strategies behind Harry Potter. One article published on Business Week suggests that those strategies are fourfold:

1) Narrative. J.K. Rowling makes sales because she writes well.

2) Ambiguity. Harry Potter appeals to a wide audience, attracting children and adults alike. In addition, Rowling blends different literary genres; not only is Harry Potter a fantasy novel, but it's also a bildungsroman and a thriller.

3) Mystery. Rowling bases much of her plots on secrets, making sure her readers keep the pages turning. (Consider also The DaVinci Code, which likewise captivated readers with secrets, mysteries, and forbidden knowledge galore.)

4) Entertainment. People read Harry Potter because it's fun!

That's Business Week's take on the phenomenon. Personally, however, I think there's more behind Harry Potter's success than these four strategies alone - narrative, ambiguity, mystery, and entertainment. Stay tuned.

Harry Potter: Marketing

Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. With his fifth movie and seventh novel pending release, no one can escape his bespeckled, lightning-scarred grasp.

I have to admit that, although I love the Harry Potter movies, I've never actually read any of the books. When I started writing fantasy, I stopped reading fantasy; except for his movie adaptations, I had read all of Terry Brooks' novels and most of R.A. Salvatore's, and I was ready to expand my reading into other genres. Mr. Potter, however, fascinates me.

Harry's not just a book; he's an empire.

J.K. Rowling, who was on welfare when she first put pen to the series, has since become, in terms of U.S. currency, the first ever billionaire author. For most authors, writing isn't a terribly lucrative endeavor; especially in the fiction genre, the competition is intense and the market is saturated. Yet, I think all of us can learn something from the Harry Potter phenomenon: Mrs. Rowling's wild success has shown that, in order to be not only a good writer but a successful writer, you also have to be a good marketer.

How have Mrs. Rowling and her publishers marketed the Harry Potter novels?

By no means am I a marketing expert, but I'd like to do a little research and find out.

Ulysses: What was Stephen's auditive sensation?

I wish I could quote here all of "Episode 17 - Ithaca" from Joyce's Ulysses, but in print, the section is forty-some-odd pages long. Here's a very, very short excerpt:

"What was Stephen's auditive sensation?

He heard in a profound ancient male unfamiliar melody the accumulation of the past.

What was Bloom's visual sensation?

He saw in a quick young male familiar form the predestination of a future.

What were Stephen's and Bloom's quasisimultaneous volitional quasisensations of concealed identities?

Visually, Stephen's: The traditional figure of hypostasis, depicted by Johannes Damascenus, Lentulus Romanus and Epiphanius Monachus as leucodermic, sesquipedalian with winedark hair. Auditively, Bloom's: The traditional accent of the ecstasy of catastrophe.

What future careers had been possible for Bloom in the past and with what exemplars?

In the church, Roman, Anglican or Nonconformist: exemplars, the very reverend John Conmee S. J., the reverend T. Salmon, D. D., provost of Trinity college, Dr Alexander J. Dowie. At the bar, English or Irish: exemplars, Seymour Bushe, K. C., Rufus Isaacs, K. C. On the stage modern or Shakespearean: exemplars, Charles Wyndham, high comedian Osmond Tearle(died 1901), exponent of Shakespeare."

How intimately do you know the characters in your own writing?