The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since 1980 and is recognized globally as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. He's a columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera and Linux Journal and frequently appears in other publications both online and in print. Additionally, Dave maintains four weblogs: The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, Ask Dave Taylor, Dave On Film, and GoFahterhood. Based in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs, as well as active member of his community and busy single father to three children.

More adventures with Harry Potter

"The ABA lashed out harshly today against Scholastic for its decision to sell Harry Potter V through its book fairs, using words like "obdurate" and "callous" in a letter to senior v-p Michael Jacobs. The letter decried Scholastic's decision that extends its direct-sales practices to a Harry Potter book for the first time."

To learn a bit more about how bookstores are viewing this, I popped into the local Borders (who partner with Amazon.com for their electronic presence) and talked with the manager about the Potter V fiasco.

Much to my surprise, she wasn't concerned about Scholastic selling books as much as she was concerned that the binding on the first printing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was better than the previous first printings of Potter I through IV. Apparently - and I didn't know this because I haven't actually bought any of the books - the spine of the first printing of the last Potter book was so poor that they had lots of returns.

To me, though this is a great example of how some people can see trees, while others see the entire forest. The issue Borders has isn't at all with bad bindings, it's with them buying 500 copies per bookstore, and then encouraging individual stores to use promotional monies to pay for special Potter events on the 21st of June (the release date) just to find that they've horribly overestimated and only sell 100-150 copies, while blowing 10% of their annual marketing budget.

Bindings are the least of their worries, in my opinion...

Before you leave a comment, a tip: If you're interested in blogging, you should sign up for my Blogsmart News so you can stay up to date on the latest insider tips and ideas for your Internet business and marketing efforts. Sign up right now and you'll get a free copy of my "Insider's Guide to Blogging" ebook too!