Publishing, Profitability and Potter in the Digital Age
With the recent announcement of HBO’s plans to create a Harry Potter live-action TV series, discussions around the ethical consumption of Harry Potter-related content have resurfaced once again. We are living in a digital age, and with it, comes the opportunity for authors to make their opinions known on social media. Given the number of J.K. Rowling’s online controversies, it is wise for anyone (publishers and TV execs alike) hoping to profit from the wizarding world to ask: how has the digital age impacted the consensus around Rowling? What’s more — is it even profitable for the Publishing industry to invest Potter-related content anymore?
The Divisive Digital Opinion
From J.K. Rowling’s anti-Trans rhetoric to the myriad of questionable choices made surrounding the Harry Potter books, the author certainly cuts a dividing figure. If we look to Twitter, the platform on which the author is most infamous, the top search result for ‘JK Rowling’ as of 27/01/2021 is the following:
JK Rowling will profit from any and all new Harry Potter-related media. If you spend money consuming that media, you are giving JK Rowling money. That’s it. That’s the tweet. — @elle_em
Indeed, trawling through the platform you will find people claiming that ‘JKR is actively harming the Trans community,’ (@jasmineinskye, 2021) and that they ‘[want] more Harry Potter content but [don’t’ want] J.K Rowling to make any money off it.’ (@gimmekith, 2021). In more traditional media, The Guardian writes that ‘new entries into the Potterverse […] have grown up awkwardly’ (Horton, 2021). Even fan-sites such as MuggleNet ask ‘does a story endure because its creator and corporate interests keep pushing it?’ (Beckoff, 2021).
This is not to say that support for Rowling does not exist. Journalist, Jo Glanville argues that ‘all writers and publishers should be speaking out in support of JK Rowling,’ (Glanville, 2020), whilst Eddie Izzard states ‘I don’t think JK Rowling is transphobic’ (Cavendish, 2021). Moreover, even amongst those that do not support Rowling, there is an argument being made that it is possible to still enjoy Harry Potter. Beckoff argues that ‘those same fans who have become vocally critical of it have clung to it more tightly than ever,’ and that ‘literature doesn’t exist in a vacuum’ (Beckoff, 2021; 2020).
And so just as Screenwriter Oliver Lansley asks, ‘how will the cult of personality affect the publishing industry?’ any publisher hoping to profit from Rowling’s work must ask ‘how will the cult of personality affect my profit margins?’ (Lansley, 2021).
Potter and its Profits
Despite the ‘cult of personality’s’ impact upon Rowling’s reputation, at the end of March 2019 Pottermore Publishing had a record year of sales, with profit jumping by £6.9m (Jones, 2020). Furthermore, as lockdown hit in March 2020, digital publisher Pottermore Publishing made the decision to give open access to an eBook version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, dubbed the ‘Harry Potter at Home’ campaign. By utilising the digital realm on which JK Rowling has caused so much controversy, profits for the company increased by 23.2% (Chandler, 2021). Bloomsbury also recorded a 28% profit growth for the series as of July 2020, labelling the series a resilient bestseller (Pocock, 2020).
Given that the latter of these reports occurred after Rowling’s hugely controversial anti-Trans essay, it is clear that despite negative online opinions, the Harry Potter series remains a profitable venture for publishers. However, given the changeability of the ‘cult of personality,’ although the Wizarding World is ‘highly profitable,’ it is met with ‘increasingly high odds of strain’ (Horton, (2021). Therefore, if publishers are to continue to invest in Potter, one must ask themselves how sustainable is this investment?
References
Beckoff, L., (2020) ‘Holding on to “Harry Potter”: Modern Myth, Common Tongue’, MuggleNet. Available at: https://www.mugglenet.com/2020/03/holding-on-to-harry-potter-modern-myth-common-tongue/ (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Beckoff, L., (2021) ‘What is a Legacy?: Franchise or Fandom’, MuggleNet. Available at: What Is a Legacy?: Franchise or Fandom | MuggleNet (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Cavendish, D., (2021) ‘Eddie Izzard: ‘Call me she or he — my brain is coded both ways,’ The Telegraph. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comedy/what-to-see/eddie-izzard-call-brain-coded-ways/ (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Chandler, M., (2021) ‘Pottermore sales and profits rise with “strong” Harry Potter sales’, The Bookseller. Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/pottermore-sales-and-profits-rise-strong-harry-potter-sales-1232915 (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Elle, M. (2021) Jan 25. Available at https://twitter.com/ellle_em/status/1353760118177935362 (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Glanville, J., (2020) ‘Resisting Censorship’, The Bookseller. Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/danger-censorship-1221023 (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Goldberg, L., (2021) ‘Harry Potter Live-Action TV Series in Early Development at HBO Max (Exclusive)’, The Hollywood Reporter. Available at: ‘Harry Potter’ Live-Action TV Series in Early Development at HBO Max (Exclusive) | Hollywood Reporter (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Jones, P., (2019) ‘Revenue drop at Pottermore “in line with expectations”’, The Bookseller. Available at: Revenue drop at Pottermore ‘in line with expectations’ | The Bookseller (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Jones, P., (2020) ‘Pottermore Records £31.5m Sales’, The Bookseller. Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/pottermore-records-315m-sales-1147261 (Accessed 26 February 2021).
Lansley, O., (2021) ‘From the Outside to the Centre’, The Bookseller. Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/outside-centre-1233517 (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Horton, A., (2021) ‘The Magic Question: Can a Harry Potter TV Show Work?’, The Guardian. Available at: The magic question: can a Harry Potter TV show work? | Television | The Guardian (Accessed 27 January 2021).
Pocock, E., (2020) ‘Harry Potter Series A U.K. Lockdown “Bestseller” Says Bloomsbury’, Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmapocock/2020/07/21/harry-potter-series-a-uk-lockdown-bestseller-says-bloomsbury/?sh=124097ee6481 (Accessed 26 February).
