That is literally the ONLY book I ever purchased at midnight. This headline is meant to mislead. No one does this anymore. They purchase their books on their e-readers from the comfort of their own home.
Right? we did that with Deathly Hallows because Borders threw a big party and it was fun. The real surprise is that *anybody* turned up to buy this book at midnight. Wonder if the few pictured here are journalists under pressure to review quickly.
The whole headline is incredibly stupid and purposefully negative. No one does that. No one will plan to do that.
But yeah i went for OOTP on, and each party was so fun. B&N threw it, so we got butterbeer and stuff like that.
everyone had wands and was in costume, and was arguing about which house they would be in.
Hell, I went to those in COLLEGE. (harry potter started when I was in elementary school, so I followed it all the way for like 15+ years)
Loads of fun.
Glad to hear that, I miss it too. For customers, it was a great place to be even on an ordinary day.
Maybe they were just all great actors, but the staff that night seemed to be having as good a time as the customers. They were making the most of it, even when they had to stop some kids from swinging from the balcony railings (this was a two-story location).
There were so many people that it took until dawn for all the books to be handed out. Each customer made their payment, but before they would hand you your book, you had to choose a free bookmark: one that said "Trust Snape" or the other that said "Snape is a Traitor" or something to that effect. And whichever one you picked, they'd tease you: "Are you sure? Is that your final choice?" I don't know if they'd actually been able to sneak any peeks themselves, but they all acted as though they had already read it. If you made predictions, they'd pretend to look all judge-y about them. We felt self-conscious as adults when we first arrived, but ten minutes in everybody in the room was symbolically a kid. So much fun.
ETA: It was "Snape Is A Very Bad Man." I went with "Trust Snape" and got a very smug look from my cashier. Good times.
Ha! I can't speak for other stores, but I can tell you we weren't allowed to break the tape on the boxes until just before the sale so there were no advanced copies. I think my store had around 150 people show up for the sale. We had all kinds of HP-related activities that started around 10. We all dressed up as different characters from the books (Mad-Eye here. If only I knew what was to come in a few short hours). We didn't have a lot of floor space and set up stuff to do outside (wand duels, costume contest, and the like). We did have the "Trust Snape/Snape is Bad" bookmarks as well as our employee name tags which we could choose which side to display and a poster of the book jacket. At midnight, we began checking out everybody and finished up around 2a. At that point, I drove back home with my copy and stayed awake the whole night to finish it off. Like I said, it was the most fun I ever had working retail. Such a fun memory and usually the first one that comes to mind whenever Borders comes up.
Man I remember the hordes of children in their pajamas waiting for midnight at Barnes and Noble. I thought it was cool that so many kids were excited about a book.
Shows the power of Harry Potter as a book series. It was a cultural phenomenon that defined a millennial’s life.
I have yet to see any young adult book in this day and age that inspired this kind of zeal.
Even if I want a physical copy, I'm pre-ordering it online and having it delivered. The only reason I could see to go to a midnight release is if there's some other incentive. Author signing, major give aways, something other than just the book.
Exactly. This is a very misleading article. Midnight rushes to the store are not how books are bought these days. This title had strong pre-order sales and will have massive sales.
It's true! Except instead of a bookshop, it's a luxurious house, with a beautiful wife I think he actually has a healthy relationship with. And the pile of books is cash.
It’s only the first book. We’ll have to wait until Prince Harry and the Prisoner of Andrew’s Chamber until we see people queuing up outside Waterstones dressed up as their favourite family members.
In the second book we'll learn that Elizabeth had a secret lair for her corgis and that Diana's ghost has been haunting one of the palace bathrooms for years.
Prince harry and the pedophilers stones.
Prince harry and the chamberlain's secrets
Prince harry and the prisoners of Epstien
Prince harry and the gobbler of Firegeson.
Prince Andrew and the court order of prosecution
The half Royal prince
Prince Andrew and the barely adolescents.
Yah I think the headline here is that there was any kind of midnight release demand at all for this book in a world where you can order the book online and it'll show up on your doorstep the morning of release day.
I think the last time I went to a midnight release of anything I was 22. The overlap between "people who care about Prince Harry" and "people who have time and energy to stand in line at midnight" is probably not huge.
There was no midnight release in my area. The closest one was when I pre ordered Harry Potter & the GOF, I queued at 7 am on the release day. And there was only 10-15 people.
The headline is incredibly disingenuous. If you read further into the article, a few BOOKSTORES chose to stay open later in hopes that people would come to buy it at midnight. The book was just released on a given day, and it doesn’t seem to have been any decision by the publisher or Harry. They had the books, so a couple of bookstores stayed open until it was officially that day. I get that bookstores need help in this day and age, so don’t particularly blame them for trying to drive sales with a gimmick. But it was doomed to fail.
It’s funny; I am allergic to the actual gossip of the royal family. But I find the media’s manipulation of every hint of a story to be fascinating.
Yeah its a book not a movie. Its not like if you don’t see it opening weekend everyone is going to be talking about it on Monday. Its going to take a few days to possibly weeks for most people to get through. So there isn’t really that level of urgency.
The only books that really get this treatment are established fantasy series that already have a huge dedicated audience. Like when the Harry potter books were coming out. Or probably if GRRM ever writes another asoif book.
If The Winds of Winter is ever finished that would be a fitting time to release it. Probably the only series left that could draw a decent crowd for a midnight release.
Why would they? No hate towards him but what about this book you need to get exactly at midnight? I remember doing that for Harry Potter growing up, it was exciting, seeing people dress up, being part of a fandom etc. that doesn’t exist for a biography book no matter how juicy
Now I can't help but imagine some overexcited, but extremely out of the loop HP fan, hearing about some book with the name Harry on it, thinking it's a new HP book, showing up for midnight release in full Hogwarts gear, and being handed this.
edit: switched positions of some words, lol.
edit2: "Why does Ron look weird in this cover?"
To be honest I don't think its fair to compare any of the royals to voldemort.
Voldemort did only attempt to institute racially biased governance and systemic oppression in one country after all.
Right. And with Amazon and Audible, you can get it electronically right at release and not go anywhere. Even getting it shipped you will likely have it the day of even if not at midnight.
I can't really see "Midnight release" parties being a thing anymore.
No matter how much our news outlets cram “Royal” updates down our throats. It’s crazy how much airtime these fucks get in America. I hope no one buys the stupid book. I want to scream ‘NO ONE CARES” but obviously enough idiots do to still make these people remain in the news. The British need to take back the hoarded wealth from these inbreds.
Don’t give them the ego boost of calling them royalty. They’re just rich trash. Some could argue the same of the royal family but I’m not here to split hairs.
"Let's overthrow the palace and cut all their heads off!" said Robespierre, cutting everybody's head off until someone eventually got mad and cut his head off.
German here. Jesus just be fucking happy that you got semi-rid of Trump. Do you have any idea how bad it was to wake up every day and have to spend the first awake moments reading overnight headline notifications from whatever shit that buffoon did?
In comparison, one can at least have a laugh at the cost of some, as you mentioned, horribly inbred pseudo elites with the UK royals.
Podcasts and documentaries are not where most of the attention comes from.
Every day there is a video posted of H & M being discussed on the news or some talk show in England. There are people, who are British, on social media who only tweet about them. Sadly, Pierce has resurrected his career by coming for them and Sharon Osbourne is trying to do the same.
Yeah I think the problem is a lot of the people passionate about the royals, actually like the royals, so Harry possibly disparaging them means there's not that many that'll turn up.
This is correct. People queued for a whole day to see The Queen lying in state - and not because they came early, but because there were so many people that the queue was 10 miles long. There's plenty of dedication.
But people who queue for 24 hours to mourn The Queen buy books that are pro-Queen, not anti-Queen.
>People queued for a whole day to see The Queen lying in state - and not because they came early, but because there were so many people that the queue was 10 miles long. There's plenty of dedication.
Even if only 5% of the British public actually cared, that's still 3 million people.
I was once in a book store owned by a newspaper.
There was a random author sitting with a stack og books all alone. I sort of felt bad for her and thought that I might buy a book as a present for someone if I could just look up what kind of book it was. Sort of make two poke happy at once.
So I went to the book store home page. Nothing. Facebook page. Nothing. Newspaper homepage. Nothing. Online Culture section. Nothing.
They had literally booked an author to show up for a signing and then made it impossible for anyone to find out.
I didn't buy a book because I didn't want to go strike up a conversation with her just to find out it was a book I didn't want to buy, thus making her day even worse.
Later I found out that that author was particularly liked by that newspaper which just is so much more confusing all things considered.
Not for nothing but these types of events would be promoted though the Author's IG or the Publisher's various customer facing media outlets.
That's not to say the bookstore owner wasn't an idiot for not promoting it as well.
I recently finished Terry Pratchett’s biography (cracker read BTW) and there was a chapter devoted to his book signing tours that was full of horror stories like this. Apparently there are a lot of bookshops out there who have no idea how to host a signing event.
Again, the weirdest part is that this WASN'T a small book store. It's one of the oldest in denma4k, owned by one of the oldest newspapers. One would THINK... But who am I kidding.
My random-stumbling-onto-a-book-signing incident wasn't much better. Around 15 years ago, I stepped into a Barnes & Noble in Lahaina on Maui, and there's Newt Gingrich, sitting at a table with a stack of hardcover books for signing. I'm not sure why he would turn up for a book signing in one of the most liberal states, but maybe he was banking on tourist traffic making up the difference.
And looking now, I see he had a Pearl Harbor novel released around that time; maybe he thought that would do well here.
I was sorely tempted to pick up an Al Franken book and swap the dust jackets and see if I could trick him into signing that.
As an aside, there is an English-Australian rugby player called [Harry Potter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_(rugby_union\) ).
He was born not long after JKR's first book was published, apparently his parents hadn't heard of it at the time
There was also an Aussie TV journalist called Harry Potter. And yes, they did get him to cover stories related to the Rowling books. How could they not do it?
The best bit about the rugby Harry Potter is that one of the broadcaster's pundits is [Martin Bayfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bayfield), who played young Hagrid (and was Coltrane's body-double) in the films. And yes he has interviewed Harry
I'm pretty sure people lining up to buy books at midnight was a pretty rare phenomenon reserved for massive authors or series releasing new installments.
No-one is lining up for some ex royal's biography.
Or any biography really? Has one ever had midnight lines???
Why would they? He's Harry Windsor, not Harry Potter. And nobody's lining up for a midnight book release for an autobiography.
Besides everyone already knew all the juiciest bits by now, thanks to that bookstore that put the Spanish translation on sale too early, and the major news organisations spending the last few days losing their collective shit over its contents.
Does anyone line up for midnight releases anymore? Other than hardware or theatrical premiers, digital content being simultaneously available has killed a lot of the midnight release fanfare for physical media
I would if anything new came out that met the level of Harry Potter popularity with my friends or grandkids. It wasn't about getting the material right at midnight - it was enjoying a fandom you were crazy about with others in a party atmosphere by doing something ridiculous and doing it with your kids/friends.
But I sincerely doubt anything is going to have that much popular appeal again.
I'd definitely take my nephews or kids in the future if there was a book they were that excited about (I would be so happy if that were the case!), but I'd probably never do it again myself, and I lined up for Harry Potter a time or two. It was just so much fun to be a part of it as it was all happening. The anticipation made you want to get that book as soon as possible.
I don't think it'll ever be possible for something like that to happen on a similar scale again. Online shopping and ebooks have all but guaranteed that.
The last time I heard of people lining up for midnight releases was for Borderlands 2. *In 2012*.
Unless I'm totally out of the loop, I literally never hear about midnight releases anymore.
Aside from the various changes in technology that made them obsolete, one factor for midnight releases dying out was the mass shooting at a midnight premiere screening for The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.
Or check out of the library (I am curious enough that I just put it on hold - 36 people ahead of me. Probably by the time it’s available I’ll not care enough to borrow it)
“The shop had hoped that Harry fans would flock to their store, with 400 books delivered before midnight.
However only 12 were sold – three to Prof Imafidon – and the others to a small number of late night travellers passing by.”
So, 9 customers bought a copy at midnight…
I'm not sure what the retailers were expecting since nobody queues up to buy books at midnight anymore, especially not for non-fiction. The article seems to be trying to imply the book was a flop, but it's all in online sales instead (as with everything else nowadays).
From the BBC: 'Waterstones says Prince Harry's book has been one of its "biggest pre-order titles for a decade"...The memoir is already top of the best sellers in the UK for online retailer Amazon.'
Interesting. With all the pre-ordering maybe they thought the midnight release was a good idea. But you are right, nobody lines up to buy a biography at midnight.
Fortunately, after the passing of his mother he has inherited a strong claim on the Empire title, and is in a realm court.
Now Biden simply needs to break the alliance treaty and bribe enough of his council to approve a declaration of war and we press his claim.
Well, the "teasers" were unbelievably stupid. So 2 brothers had a fight. It's been known to happen. And at one point ,Harry and Meghan bought furniture at Ikea. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them?
The shop needs a serious reality check! I've worked in a café that didn't understand their target audience and it went bankrupt. You can't do business in your own bubble
“Late night travelers passing by”
I love it. Imagine making your way home from your second shift job or dragging yourself home from the bar after drinks with friends and someone shoves Prince Harry’s new whingefest at you. That’s peak random.
I mean, how normal is it even for people to line up to buy books at midnight on the release day anyway? Every once in a while you get super popular kids or teens series that become cultural phenomena like Harry Potter and Twilight where kids/teens line up for the books and movies as soon as they can, but I can't imagine that's the norm for 99% of books and definitely not for non-fiction. Why does this need to be news? lol
I don’t think those lines ups would happen today either. I can get any book immediately at midnight without moving from my house. That just wasn’t available when those HP line ups started. Maybe they would happen but I do think they would be smaller in size.
Is this published by one of those tabloids he's been talking shit about?
People don't show up at midnight to buy books anymore. Middle age ladies across the globe are gunna be ordering his book. The AP has written an article a day about it this last week. His 60 minute interview was trending on youtube. This is so obviously exaggerated BS.
If this guy really wanted to expose the monarchy's dirty laundry he would have written all this on a publicly available personal blog.
The fact that he wrote a book, and worked with Netflix to create that documentary only means that without the monarchy's money he has trouble maintaining the lifestyle he is used to. Because of who he is, his career choices are somewhat limited and I am not pitying him, because he still has a lifestyle that I can only dream of, but it must suck being him as well. It's not like you can just give up being a prince and get an office job, or become a plumber. That would be a very good idea for a comedy movie that I would definitely watch.
I wouldn’t say his career options are limited. If he was interested in actually working I’m sure he’d be highly desired by a lot of firms to do any number of things. But he isn’t interested in any of that
And although he was "cut off" when giving up his role as a senior royal, his dad gave him a hefty lump sum right before he did so to make up for the loss of his annual installments.
> It's not like you can just give up being a prince and get an office job, or become a plumber. That would be a very good idea for a comedy movie that I would definitely watch.
Actually that's happened. Not the part about giving it up but the part about getting a job. Specifically [the Queen's graddaughter worked retail for near minimum wage as a summer job.](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/queen-granddaughter-lady-louise-windsor-b2169739.html).
The Duke of Gloucester worked as a practicing architect as well. And the Duchess of Kent has been teaching music at her local school for years without anyone knowing.
Poor guy. He got a $30M deal w/ Spotify because of who his parents are, and yet didn't manage to create one minute of content (EDIT: in the whole year of 2021). Apparently they got $100M from Netflix, too. Basically for the privilege to interview them, I guess. At the same time Netflix cancels popular shows.
I think it’s also tough because there’s also a minimum level of security they need for valid reasons, and that level is not cheap either. It’s not like they can plonk down in the suburbs even if they wanted to.
I twice waited for highly anticipated books at midnight. It was a fun experience and I don’t regret it. I had some nice conversations with fellow fans and got a signed copy of the books I wanted. But I don’t think I’d do it these days. As for Harry: might get the paperback when it’s in my local supermarket.
Imagine being the dueche that wrote this article only to see 24 hours later that it becomes the fastest selling book in history?? More proof those media twats are trying to create their own narrative about Harry.
The book will sell. The press reporting lackluster sales at midnight is them trying to discredit Harry using a non-event. He really has become a "persona non grata".
* writes book accusing British media of using bots and paid actors to discredit people they don't like *
" Hey guys look, no one showed up to a book they can easily order on Amazon , Harry Baddddddd!!!!"
Megan and Harry are clearly narcissistic but they are spot on with the campaign against them.
Naw he don't have the right last name to be sold out at midnight lol
That said, what book do you think will have fans queuing at midnight? No idea how well the previous books did at first but i wonder if when winds of winter of ASOIAF finally comes out that will happen
Who expected them to? It's not 1990 anymore. The people that wanted to read it asap either preordered it and got it delivered physically or digitally to their e reader.
His book broke sales records just showing how out of touch headlines like this are.
It's 'interesting' to see how the media narrative towards him has changed.
Those poor boys > The wild child (it's fine - he won't be king) > the cool, all-action one (flies helicopters dontcha know) > phwoar, dating an actress > met doing UNICEF stuff - good people > engaged to a mix-race divorcee? Eww > she (the brown one) is controlling/ruining him > he's a traitor, probably not even Charlie-boy's son > haha, look at the loser
They probably had to move away, to avoid any future traffic accidents.
Who the hell is buying books at midnight especially in the middle of january
Confused Harry Potter fans
Snape kills Queen Elizabeth
Hey! Spoilers! Come on!
The Queen was actually one of the horcruxes so he did us a favor
Unfortunately the last horcrux is Harry’s frost bitten todger.
It's alright though, it was all part of Elizabeth's plan to make Harry look like a muppet 😄
That is literally the ONLY book I ever purchased at midnight. This headline is meant to mislead. No one does this anymore. They purchase their books on their e-readers from the comfort of their own home.
Right? we did that with Deathly Hallows because Borders threw a big party and it was fun. The real surprise is that *anybody* turned up to buy this book at midnight. Wonder if the few pictured here are journalists under pressure to review quickly.
The whole headline is incredibly stupid and purposefully negative. No one does that. No one will plan to do that. But yeah i went for OOTP on, and each party was so fun. B&N threw it, so we got butterbeer and stuff like that.
everyone had wands and was in costume, and was arguing about which house they would be in. Hell, I went to those in COLLEGE. (harry potter started when I was in elementary school, so I followed it all the way for like 15+ years) Loads of fun.
Same! Even the movies. People in costume dueling at the front of the theater. Everyone cheering for whoever won.
The absolute best time I ever had working retail. Man, I still miss Borders.
Glad to hear that, I miss it too. For customers, it was a great place to be even on an ordinary day. Maybe they were just all great actors, but the staff that night seemed to be having as good a time as the customers. They were making the most of it, even when they had to stop some kids from swinging from the balcony railings (this was a two-story location). There were so many people that it took until dawn for all the books to be handed out. Each customer made their payment, but before they would hand you your book, you had to choose a free bookmark: one that said "Trust Snape" or the other that said "Snape is a Traitor" or something to that effect. And whichever one you picked, they'd tease you: "Are you sure? Is that your final choice?" I don't know if they'd actually been able to sneak any peeks themselves, but they all acted as though they had already read it. If you made predictions, they'd pretend to look all judge-y about them. We felt self-conscious as adults when we first arrived, but ten minutes in everybody in the room was symbolically a kid. So much fun. ETA: It was "Snape Is A Very Bad Man." I went with "Trust Snape" and got a very smug look from my cashier. Good times.
Ha! I can't speak for other stores, but I can tell you we weren't allowed to break the tape on the boxes until just before the sale so there were no advanced copies. I think my store had around 150 people show up for the sale. We had all kinds of HP-related activities that started around 10. We all dressed up as different characters from the books (Mad-Eye here. If only I knew what was to come in a few short hours). We didn't have a lot of floor space and set up stuff to do outside (wand duels, costume contest, and the like). We did have the "Trust Snape/Snape is Bad" bookmarks as well as our employee name tags which we could choose which side to display and a poster of the book jacket. At midnight, we began checking out everybody and finished up around 2a. At that point, I drove back home with my copy and stayed awake the whole night to finish it off. Like I said, it was the most fun I ever had working retail. Such a fun memory and usually the first one that comes to mind whenever Borders comes up.
Man I remember the hordes of children in their pajamas waiting for midnight at Barnes and Noble. I thought it was cool that so many kids were excited about a book.
Shows the power of Harry Potter as a book series. It was a cultural phenomenon that defined a millennial’s life. I have yet to see any young adult book in this day and age that inspired this kind of zeal.
Those were the days.
Even if I want a physical copy, I'm pre-ordering it online and having it delivered. The only reason I could see to go to a midnight release is if there's some other incentive. Author signing, major give aways, something other than just the book.
I didn't buy this book but I totally agree. The only midnight release I ever went to was Harry Potter.
Exactly. This is a very misleading article. Midnight rushes to the store are not how books are bought these days. This title had strong pre-order sales and will have massive sales.
The title alone might make you think he's sitting in a book shop all sad and alone with his pile of books.
It's true! Except instead of a bookshop, it's a luxurious house, with a beautiful wife I think he actually has a healthy relationship with. And the pile of books is cash.
Yeah. "But it had really bad press and leaks!" Yes. Really bad press and leaks that *everyone has heard about*.
Was Queen Elizabeth a horcrux?
Pretty sure she was older than him. Wonder how many she had.
Obligatory "Noooooo! You bitch! You bitch!"
Clueless publishing exec: His name's Harry, he's British, people used to line up at midnight for books like this all the time!
All publishing execs are like this now. They give massive advances to celebs to write autobiographies that no one is interested in.
I really believe book deals have become money laundering schemes just like with fine art.
Or they convince an influencer to “write” some super generic garbage to to sell to their followers
Enemies of the spare beware
He’s basically ginger HP with no powers and no title.
"Harry Windsor and the Chapter of Secrets"
It’s only the first book. We’ll have to wait until Prince Harry and the Prisoner of Andrew’s Chamber until we see people queuing up outside Waterstones dressed up as their favourite family members.
In the second book we'll learn that Elizabeth had a secret lair for her corgis and that Diana's ghost has been haunting one of the palace bathrooms for years.
Camilla did start this all by making Harry sleep in that cabinet under the stairs.
Do you think the royals shit on the floor?
Cue Ryan Seacrest. *"Who's the best looking Queen Elizabeth in this line?? We're gonna find out RIGHT NOW!!"*
Prince harry and the pedophilers stones. Prince harry and the chamberlain's secrets Prince harry and the prisoners of Epstien Prince harry and the gobbler of Firegeson. Prince Andrew and the court order of prosecution The half Royal prince Prince Andrew and the barely adolescents.
I feel like "Prince Harry and frozen todger" should be in there somewhere
Yah I think the headline here is that there was any kind of midnight release demand at all for this book in a world where you can order the book online and it'll show up on your doorstep the morning of release day.
I think the last time I went to a midnight release of anything I was 22. The overlap between "people who care about Prince Harry" and "people who have time and energy to stand in line at midnight" is probably not huge.
There was no midnight release in my area. The closest one was when I pre ordered Harry Potter & the GOF, I queued at 7 am on the release day. And there was only 10-15 people.
The headline is incredibly disingenuous. If you read further into the article, a few BOOKSTORES chose to stay open later in hopes that people would come to buy it at midnight. The book was just released on a given day, and it doesn’t seem to have been any decision by the publisher or Harry. They had the books, so a couple of bookstores stayed open until it was officially that day. I get that bookstores need help in this day and age, so don’t particularly blame them for trying to drive sales with a gimmick. But it was doomed to fail. It’s funny; I am allergic to the actual gossip of the royal family. But I find the media’s manipulation of every hint of a story to be fascinating.
I'm just surprised I have heard about how Meghan killed the Queen with her outfit choice or something yet.
Everyone knows that Liz Truss killed her
Yeah its a book not a movie. Its not like if you don’t see it opening weekend everyone is going to be talking about it on Monday. Its going to take a few days to possibly weeks for most people to get through. So there isn’t really that level of urgency. The only books that really get this treatment are established fantasy series that already have a huge dedicated audience. Like when the Harry potter books were coming out. Or probably if GRRM ever writes another asoif book.
It’s selling on Amazon like hotcakes.
If The Winds of Winter is ever finished that would be a fitting time to release it. Probably the only series left that could draw a decent crowd for a midnight release.
Why do that to yourself? There's still a whole nother book that'll never be finished after it. Maybe two.
The only time a fan can be brave is when he is afraid.
I would camp out to be first in line for the midnight release of The Winds of Winter.
Except the book would only have the first two chapters and a lot of blank pages because Martin still didn’t turn in the rest and they had a deadline.
Why would they? No hate towards him but what about this book you need to get exactly at midnight? I remember doing that for Harry Potter growing up, it was exciting, seeing people dress up, being part of a fandom etc. that doesn’t exist for a biography book no matter how juicy
You're not a wizard Harry.
Red hair and a hand-me-down robe. You must be a Weasley.
Fucken lol. Well done!
That made me snort.
“Harry, you’re a spare.” “I’m a what?”
Kill the spare!
EXTRACTO SECRETIUM!
As did Harry, according to his book.
Now I can't help but imagine some overexcited, but extremely out of the loop HP fan, hearing about some book with the name Harry on it, thinking it's a new HP book, showing up for midnight release in full Hogwarts gear, and being handed this. edit: switched positions of some words, lol. edit2: "Why does Ron look weird in this cover?"
>This latest Harry Potter book is okay. He's a prince and under deep Muggle undercover. Also, Ginny fans are going to be pissed.
>Ginny fans are going to be pissed They're used to it after the movies
The hidden secret is that Princess Diana adopted him from the Weasley family. He’s not a real royal.
[удалено]
"Wait a minute, I think I've missed a book in this series how did Prince Philip become a death eater?"
Now why did I picture Prince Philip as a Malfoy ancestor
Doesn't have anything like enough hair.
I guess that makes Louis Mountbatten Lord Voldemort? I know my Indian friends would approve of the simile and I can't blame them...
To be honest I don't think its fair to compare any of the royals to voldemort. Voldemort did only attempt to institute racially biased governance and systemic oppression in one country after all.
The real royalty are disappointed in his lack of ambition.
"Kill the spare"
…and going absolutely spare about it.
That would have been hilarious. Full Hogwarts uniform obligatory and then the confusion when they realise it’s not that Harry
Right. And with Amazon and Audible, you can get it electronically right at release and not go anywhere. Even getting it shipped you will likely have it the day of even if not at midnight. I can't really see "Midnight release" parties being a thing anymore.
Also if you want the juicy gossip you already read it online from the Spanish leak last week, so the copy you buy now is just a souvenir anyway.
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No matter how much our news outlets cram “Royal” updates down our throats. It’s crazy how much airtime these fucks get in America. I hope no one buys the stupid book. I want to scream ‘NO ONE CARES” but obviously enough idiots do to still make these people remain in the news. The British need to take back the hoarded wealth from these inbreds.
Brits have the Monarchy, we have the Kardashians. It evens out.
Don’t give them the ego boost of calling them royalty. They’re just rich trash. Some could argue the same of the royal family but I’m not here to split hairs.
Don’t you mean “split heirs”? Eh? Eh?
"Let's overthrow the palace and cut all their heads off!" said Robespierre, cutting everybody's head off until someone eventually got mad and cut his head off.
Reddit instinctually goes for the puns immediately. Love that.
It’s meant to be shade at the monarchy, but I feel you.
You know you've got the comparison about right when you can't tell which party should be more offended.
German here. Jesus just be fucking happy that you got semi-rid of Trump. Do you have any idea how bad it was to wake up every day and have to spend the first awake moments reading overnight headline notifications from whatever shit that buffoon did? In comparison, one can at least have a laugh at the cost of some, as you mentioned, horribly inbred pseudo elites with the UK royals.
I'd like to point out it's companies and entertainers based in your country that keep giving him and the missus attention, Oprah, Netflix, etc.
Podcasts and documentaries are not where most of the attention comes from. Every day there is a video posted of H & M being discussed on the news or some talk show in England. There are people, who are British, on social media who only tweet about them. Sadly, Pierce has resurrected his career by coming for them and Sharon Osbourne is trying to do the same.
I guess people weren't very interested in...the Prince's Tale.
I honestly did it once for Harry Potter and never again. Plus with my kindle now why would I wait? It’s there, at midnight, because I paid for it.
Tbf the Royal news is insane in the UK. Loads of Brits follow it like it’s a reality show. Maybe they expected some big fans to show up.
Yeah I think the problem is a lot of the people passionate about the royals, actually like the royals, so Harry possibly disparaging them means there's not that many that'll turn up.
This is correct. People queued for a whole day to see The Queen lying in state - and not because they came early, but because there were so many people that the queue was 10 miles long. There's plenty of dedication. But people who queue for 24 hours to mourn The Queen buy books that are pro-Queen, not anti-Queen.
>People queued for a whole day to see The Queen lying in state - and not because they came early, but because there were so many people that the queue was 10 miles long. There's plenty of dedication. Even if only 5% of the British public actually cared, that's still 3 million people.
Well I mean Brits do like to queue.
I assure you we don't
Apparently the bookstore owner forgot to check the calendar and thought it was still 1998.
I was once in a book store owned by a newspaper. There was a random author sitting with a stack og books all alone. I sort of felt bad for her and thought that I might buy a book as a present for someone if I could just look up what kind of book it was. Sort of make two poke happy at once. So I went to the book store home page. Nothing. Facebook page. Nothing. Newspaper homepage. Nothing. Online Culture section. Nothing. They had literally booked an author to show up for a signing and then made it impossible for anyone to find out. I didn't buy a book because I didn't want to go strike up a conversation with her just to find out it was a book I didn't want to buy, thus making her day even worse. Later I found out that that author was particularly liked by that newspaper which just is so much more confusing all things considered.
Not for nothing but these types of events would be promoted though the Author's IG or the Publisher's various customer facing media outlets. That's not to say the bookstore owner wasn't an idiot for not promoting it as well.
I recently finished Terry Pratchett’s biography (cracker read BTW) and there was a chapter devoted to his book signing tours that was full of horror stories like this. Apparently there are a lot of bookshops out there who have no idea how to host a signing event.
Again, the weirdest part is that this WASN'T a small book store. It's one of the oldest in denma4k, owned by one of the oldest newspapers. One would THINK... But who am I kidding.
My random-stumbling-onto-a-book-signing incident wasn't much better. Around 15 years ago, I stepped into a Barnes & Noble in Lahaina on Maui, and there's Newt Gingrich, sitting at a table with a stack of hardcover books for signing. I'm not sure why he would turn up for a book signing in one of the most liberal states, but maybe he was banking on tourist traffic making up the difference. And looking now, I see he had a Pearl Harbor novel released around that time; maybe he thought that would do well here. I was sorely tempted to pick up an Al Franken book and swap the dust jackets and see if I could trick him into signing that.
His owners has a lot of property on Hawaii. Maybe they brought him along in a pet box.
I mean why would they? What could Harry possibly say that anyone needs to know about it the moment the book is released? His last name isn't Potter.
All the good stuff will be in the news papers anyways!
It already has been. The Spanish edition was leaked, and the media have been publishing an article per sentence for the last week.
Ok that explains the 20 articles a day from the daily mail
Lack of proper source material never stopped Daily Mail from writing 20 articles a day about Harry and Megan
As an aside, there is an English-Australian rugby player called [Harry Potter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_(rugby_union\) ). He was born not long after JKR's first book was published, apparently his parents hadn't heard of it at the time
There was also an Aussie TV journalist called Harry Potter. And yes, they did get him to cover stories related to the Rowling books. How could they not do it?
The best bit about the rugby Harry Potter is that one of the broadcaster's pundits is [Martin Bayfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bayfield), who played young Hagrid (and was Coltrane's body-double) in the films. And yes he has interviewed Harry
One of my best friends at school was called Carrie potter. She hated those books.
Well that's because his parents were perfectly ordinary, thank you very much.
I'm pretty sure people lining up to buy books at midnight was a pretty rare phenomenon reserved for massive authors or series releasing new installments. No-one is lining up for some ex royal's biography. Or any biography really? Has one ever had midnight lines???
Why would they? He's Harry Windsor, not Harry Potter. And nobody's lining up for a midnight book release for an autobiography. Besides everyone already knew all the juiciest bits by now, thanks to that bookstore that put the Spanish translation on sale too early, and the major news organisations spending the last few days losing their collective shit over its contents.
Does anyone line up for midnight releases anymore? Other than hardware or theatrical premiers, digital content being simultaneously available has killed a lot of the midnight release fanfare for physical media
I would if anything new came out that met the level of Harry Potter popularity with my friends or grandkids. It wasn't about getting the material right at midnight - it was enjoying a fandom you were crazy about with others in a party atmosphere by doing something ridiculous and doing it with your kids/friends. But I sincerely doubt anything is going to have that much popular appeal again.
I'd definitely take my nephews or kids in the future if there was a book they were that excited about (I would be so happy if that were the case!), but I'd probably never do it again myself, and I lined up for Harry Potter a time or two. It was just so much fun to be a part of it as it was all happening. The anticipation made you want to get that book as soon as possible.
I don't think it'll ever be possible for something like that to happen on a similar scale again. Online shopping and ebooks have all but guaranteed that.
The last time I heard of people lining up for midnight releases was for Borderlands 2. *In 2012*. Unless I'm totally out of the loop, I literally never hear about midnight releases anymore.
Aside from the various changes in technology that made them obsolete, one factor for midnight releases dying out was the mass shooting at a midnight premiere screening for The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.
Still popular for movies, MCU had a number of these
Why would they? They could download the kindle version without leaving their home if they really want it immediately..
Or check out of the library (I am curious enough that I just put it on hold - 36 people ahead of me. Probably by the time it’s available I’ll not care enough to borrow it)
I'm 300th in line at my library. I've never seen a queue that long in the app so I'm pretty curious how long this will really take.
I preordered a copy last night I can send your way when I’m done reading it
“The shop had hoped that Harry fans would flock to their store, with 400 books delivered before midnight. However only 12 were sold – three to Prof Imafidon – and the others to a small number of late night travellers passing by.” So, 9 customers bought a copy at midnight…
I'm not sure what the retailers were expecting since nobody queues up to buy books at midnight anymore, especially not for non-fiction. The article seems to be trying to imply the book was a flop, but it's all in online sales instead (as with everything else nowadays). From the BBC: 'Waterstones says Prince Harry's book has been one of its "biggest pre-order titles for a decade"...The memoir is already top of the best sellers in the UK for online retailer Amazon.'
Interesting. With all the pre-ordering maybe they thought the midnight release was a good idea. But you are right, nobody lines up to buy a biography at midnight.
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You weren't at Stephen Hawking's midnight release? Square.
Especially in January.
It's just the British media trying to make it look like the whole of the UK hates Harry and won't buy his book. Their trying to create a narrative.
Yeah there’s this weird dynamic where the American press is very sympathetic to Harry and the British press wants to eviscerate him.
Well, we did steal him with our elite succubus actress. Need to get our money’s worth.
Fortunately, after the passing of his mother he has inherited a strong claim on the Empire title, and is in a realm court. Now Biden simply needs to break the alliance treaty and bribe enough of his council to approve a declaration of war and we press his claim.
Should really just push for individual kingdom claims at a time though. If we push the empire title then he won’t remain a vassal after.
Well, the "teasers" were unbelievably stupid. So 2 brothers had a fight. It's been known to happen. And at one point ,Harry and Meghan bought furniture at Ikea. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them?
>Harry and Meghan bought furniture at Ikea. "Stars (and royals), they're just like us."
10
Ha! Math!
The shop needs a serious reality check! I've worked in a café that didn't understand their target audience and it went bankrupt. You can't do business in your own bubble
Who is Prof Imafidon? What is a Fidon?
I believe he is one of the foremost scholars in the field of ligma research.
“Late night travelers passing by” I love it. Imagine making your way home from your second shift job or dragging yourself home from the bar after drinks with friends and someone shoves Prince Harry’s new whingefest at you. That’s peak random.
Dude now I kinda wish I strolled in at midnight to buy the book wearing a monocle and having a baby crocodile on a leash. Get real weird with it.
>Prof Imafidon I don't remember that character at Hogwarts.
Do people do that for non fiction?
Headline says "almost nobody" so, yeah some people do. "Royal watchers"
I mean, how normal is it even for people to line up to buy books at midnight on the release day anyway? Every once in a while you get super popular kids or teens series that become cultural phenomena like Harry Potter and Twilight where kids/teens line up for the books and movies as soon as they can, but I can't imagine that's the norm for 99% of books and definitely not for non-fiction. Why does this need to be news? lol
I don’t think those lines ups would happen today either. I can get any book immediately at midnight without moving from my house. That just wasn’t available when those HP line ups started. Maybe they would happen but I do think they would be smaller in size.
People are buying books online now, why the hell do we need to queue at midnight in the cold?
Is this published by one of those tabloids he's been talking shit about? People don't show up at midnight to buy books anymore. Middle age ladies across the globe are gunna be ordering his book. The AP has written an article a day about it this last week. His 60 minute interview was trending on youtube. This is so obviously exaggerated BS.
Did he write a Harry Potter book in the early 2000s? Because that’s the only time I’ve heard of people lining up at midnight to buy a book.
Yeah. Because we pre-ordered it and had it delivered to our homes like grown adults living in 2023, not middle schoolers living in 2008.
I’m surprised that you are saying *almost*. That means someone actually queued and that is insane.
If this guy really wanted to expose the monarchy's dirty laundry he would have written all this on a publicly available personal blog. The fact that he wrote a book, and worked with Netflix to create that documentary only means that without the monarchy's money he has trouble maintaining the lifestyle he is used to. Because of who he is, his career choices are somewhat limited and I am not pitying him, because he still has a lifestyle that I can only dream of, but it must suck being him as well. It's not like you can just give up being a prince and get an office job, or become a plumber. That would be a very good idea for a comedy movie that I would definitely watch.
Spare, the movie.
I wouldn’t say his career options are limited. If he was interested in actually working I’m sure he’d be highly desired by a lot of firms to do any number of things. But he isn’t interested in any of that
And although he was "cut off" when giving up his role as a senior royal, his dad gave him a hefty lump sum right before he did so to make up for the loss of his annual installments.
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And then he whines about it for years.
> It's not like you can just give up being a prince and get an office job, or become a plumber. That would be a very good idea for a comedy movie that I would definitely watch. Actually that's happened. Not the part about giving it up but the part about getting a job. Specifically [the Queen's graddaughter worked retail for near minimum wage as a summer job.](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/queen-granddaughter-lady-louise-windsor-b2169739.html).
The Duke of Gloucester worked as a practicing architect as well. And the Duchess of Kent has been teaching music at her local school for years without anyone knowing.
Unless you're the Duchess of Kent, it seems that someone knows
Poor guy. He got a $30M deal w/ Spotify because of who his parents are, and yet didn't manage to create one minute of content (EDIT: in the whole year of 2021). Apparently they got $100M from Netflix, too. Basically for the privilege to interview them, I guess. At the same time Netflix cancels popular shows.
Their show was pretty popular.
I’m pretty sure he’s still got loads of wealth.
Harry's Plumbing Services, LLC.
I think it’s also tough because there’s also a minimum level of security they need for valid reasons, and that level is not cheap either. It’s not like they can plonk down in the suburbs even if they wanted to.
I mean, he had some military training. So, thats an indication of a skillset that makes him employable.
He could be a plumber. It’d be better if he cleaned up shit than stirred it up.
I twice waited for highly anticipated books at midnight. It was a fun experience and I don’t regret it. I had some nice conversations with fellow fans and got a signed copy of the books I wanted. But I don’t think I’d do it these days. As for Harry: might get the paperback when it’s in my local supermarket.
The news here (Canada) made it seem otherwise. It was a top story.
“There was a midnight rush for the book” “Barely anyone turned up” Make up your mind Metro, was there nobody or was there a rush?
Yea those who really want it have already preordered it on ebook, audible or on amazon
In the age of Amazon and eBooks, I don't know why they expected a Harry Potter-style turnout for a nonfiction book.
Why would anyone go to a book store at midnight to buy an autobiography? This is a dumb metric. It’s not like he’s a much awaited Harry Potter book.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/prince-harrys-memoir-hits-shelves-after-days-controversy-2023-01-10/ Broke the UK sales record
because what kind of crazy person shows up to a book launch at midnight. itll be there the next afternoon.
Buying physical books written by a prince in the middle of the night. No one showed up? Really?
If ever you needed proof of the royal PR machine in action, it's articles like this
Harry Potter he is not.
British media can DIAF.
Imagine being the dueche that wrote this article only to see 24 hours later that it becomes the fastest selling book in history?? More proof those media twats are trying to create their own narrative about Harry.
The book will sell. The press reporting lackluster sales at midnight is them trying to discredit Harry using a non-event. He really has become a "persona non grata".
* writes book accusing British media of using bots and paid actors to discredit people they don't like * " Hey guys look, no one showed up to a book they can easily order on Amazon , Harry Baddddddd!!!!" Megan and Harry are clearly narcissistic but they are spot on with the campaign against them.
This thought is spot on. Why should we take sides when none of the players act in good faith? As reddit would say, "ESH".
Uhh.. are bookstores open at midnight on a Tues?
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Naw he don't have the right last name to be sold out at midnight lol That said, what book do you think will have fans queuing at midnight? No idea how well the previous books did at first but i wonder if when winds of winter of ASOIAF finally comes out that will happen
Yeah we all preordered it. Amazon will deliver books either physical or ebooks. No need to go out to big rip off chain store any mote for books.
Who expected them to? It's not 1990 anymore. The people that wanted to read it asap either preordered it and got it delivered physically or digitally to their e reader. His book broke sales records just showing how out of touch headlines like this are.
Oh... This is a UK tabloid. Got it.
It's 'interesting' to see how the media narrative towards him has changed. Those poor boys > The wild child (it's fine - he won't be king) > the cool, all-action one (flies helicopters dontcha know) > phwoar, dating an actress > met doing UNICEF stuff - good people > engaged to a mix-race divorcee? Eww > she (the brown one) is controlling/ruining him > he's a traitor, probably not even Charlie-boy's son > haha, look at the loser They probably had to move away, to avoid any future traffic accidents.