Fans dismayed with early reviews of 'Deathly Hallows'

  July 19, 2007 at 8:32 AM ET
  Geri     HPANA
  harry potter and the deathly hallows, hpdh, deathly hallows, bloomsbury


To the dismay of many fans the New York Times has released a review (which we will not link to) of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The review appeared on their web site late last night and the author of the review pointed out that the newspaper bought the book at a local New York store.

Bloomsbury, the UK publisher of the series said earlier today:

As the originating publisher, we're really disappointed with what happened in the US. We're relying on the support of retailers and the media in the rest of the world to allow readers to find out for themselves. We are asking people to wait.

There's only 40 hours to go.

Bloomsbury press release is below:

Bloomsbury Publishing, originating publisher of Harry Potter, was extremely dismayed to learn last night about early sales in America of a small number of copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows prior to the UK, US and worldwide embargo time agreed with retailers, suppliers, and all third parties involved of 00.01AM British Summer Time on Saturday July 21st 2007.

We are aware of some speculation in the media that internet "spoilers" purporting to be extracts from the book have come from the few early copies sold. We confirm that this is not true as is clear from the press release of July 18th issued by Scholastic Inc, the US publisher of Harry Potter. The "spoilers" remain unauthenticated.

The release date and time embargo of 00.01AM BST on Saturday July 21st is being enforced unflinchingly and without exception by the publishers. We confirm that all Bloomsbury's customers in 93 countries worldwide are robustly supporting this embargo time to ensure secrecy 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 worldwide 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 at 1pm today, 'I am staggered that 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.'

You, as a fan can voice your displeasure with their actions by writing a letter using this address: [email protected]. Please remember that spoilers are currently rampant on the web and it would be better if you just turned off your computer right now so that you don't see anything you wouldn't want to see. Only 35 hours to go.

UPDATE: In today's issue of Business Week there is an interesting articleopens in new window that points out that spoiling the last book, legal or otherwise, betrays the author and the audience. The article is a welcomed read and it is a pity that some journalists and others can’t even comprehend where the author is coming from.

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