UK adult editions

[Pigwidgeon]

Kaitlin:
> A question for the British folks:  Are the HP adult editions still 
> popular/widely available in the UK, or do people choose the regular 
> edition now that adult readership of the books is more common?

The adult edition of OotP is selling well. It is currently the second 
best selling book in the UK. I believe the ratio is about 6:1 
(children:adult) being sold at the moment, but I could not find 
figures online to back this up (the figures were in The Times on 
Saturday, but not on their online equivalent).

However this does not examine if there are any underlying reasons for 
this balance. I have a childrens edition, but would have preferred an 
adult one (I like the adult cover more). However, even though the 
shop had some, I was unable to get the adult edition at midnight on 
the 21st. It would have involved the shop trying to find a copy and I 
was just after getting out with a copy and to start reading.

After the first couple of days of sales there have definitely been 
many copies of the books in the stores (literally piles of them 
everywhere). Though I did note that it was the childrens edition that 
was prominently displayed in most shops, with you having to search a 
bit harder to find the adult edition (though not half as hard as to 
find The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde on its first day of 
release).

My weekend train trips agreed with the 6:1 ratio, but on a sample 
size of seven this is possibly best ignored (though they were all 
adults reading).


Whether the adult versions of the other books are still selling well 
I am unsure. As I mention above, it seems difficult to find the data 
online. Certainly I am unsure where to look, as the places I tried 
all had only the positions and not numbers of books sold.


Simon