The 39 Clues to Make Money

Scholastic, greedy and hungry for more after the Harry Potter series officially ended, started a new campaign for a dynamic, multimedia book series called “The 39 Clues”. If you haven’t heard about this then let me explain. In an effort to keep making as much money as they did with Harry Potter, they have pulled out all the stops to create one insane piece of candy for all the kiddies around the world. Not only will this be a book series, but it will have a card game, 10,000 dollar prize, and a website with full on social media features. There will also be films (of course) and the rights have already been purchased by the man himself, Steven Spielberg. Every book will be written by a different author.

I have no doubt that this will probably be successful, but I think Scholastic (being blinded by greed) has missed the point to Harry Potter’s success. First, it is written by one author. Readers appreciate a story that is written by one author because they know it will have the same writing style and fresh approach. When you change authors in a series with books the readers won’t know what to expect and may hate the different writing style changes. Also, Harry Potter didn’t just appeal to kids but to readers of all ages. This story you are representing seems aimed toward children, which while a large demographic of readers, will still not compare to the vast majority of people that Harry Potter appealed to. Sometimes it is better to just stick with a good old fashion book to tell a story. By making your story dynamic you risk the nostalgia value of picking up a book and reading it for fun. Instead, you are making the kids almost play a game rather than read a book. While kids love games, and it is an inovative way to get kids interested, it could also backfire as cheesy, boring, and pointless.

In the end, this is just another way for a publisher to make tons of money without appreciating the value of a good writer and book. I understand that a publisher is a buisness, but there is a big difference between a book publishing buisness and McDonaldizing creative material. I suppose I am just a purist when it comes to fiction and books. I am sure a good chunk of kids will have a blast with it, but I am skeptical that so many will buy into it. Only time will tell.

Posted by Alcamadus

Potter Fan’s Get the Shaft

In recent news it was announced that the 6th Installment of the Harry Potter movie series was going to be moved back to a summer schedule slot (It was going to be released this winter). Apparently, so many Potter fans wrote in protest that the CEO of Warner Brothers reassured all of them that this was a good thing because the 7th Installment would be closer to the 6th.

Now, doesn’t that make you feel better kids? Go along and play nice now.

Seriously, did this guy actually think that kind of reasoning was going to help the situation? Using some kind of weird “mom” logic on the people who were about to give him lots of money. It doesn’t really matter anyway. He knows he owns them with this series. He knows they will go to the movie even if he moved it back another two years. The only way that that would change is if they protested the film and didn’t go see it at the summer slot.

I’ll be totally honest, if that happened, I would be so happy. Hollywood so takes advantage of the fact that people are lemmings and will follow whatever doom may be at their feet. Sigh.

Posted by Alcamadus