OOP release date

[dfrankis at dial.pipex.com]

(copied from main list)
From:  "Saitaina" <saitaina at w...>
Date:  Fri Jun 8, 2001  12:07 am
Subject:  Re: [HPforGrownups] Release Date: (was: SPOILER: "OotP"
(in answer to a question about the source of a January OOP release 
date)

Waldon Books, and the American publishers.  I went about it sorta 
slyly by
having my publisher ask a friend who works for Scholastic if they 
have a
tentative date (the date they mark on they're calendars and hopes 
will be
true) and She gave sometime in January as the current date though, 
she did
say "It could be pushed back due to the movie taking up most of the 
author's
time."

It's been my private belief that Scholastic and Bloomsbury would 
deliberately lower expectations about the release date this time 
around.  JKR came under a lot of pressure when she discovered she 
needed to rewrite GOF against a deadline, and generally gives the 
impression of not liking the hype around the release of the books.

So I reckoned she and the publishers would hide behind the film, 
leading us all to believe in a late Spring date, and then at short 
notice (say 2 - 4 weeks) announce a release date somewhat earlier.  I 
guess WB would prefer for the film to take the first tranche of its 
gross before the fans are distracted by the real thing - so after 
Christmas would be about the right time.

During the run up to GOF release I felt that there was a significant 
chance that JKR would never finish the series because of the way 
things were going.

David, now wondering if Snape would be interested in one of Tony 
Blair's Stakeholder pensions when he retires