Not asking if a book could ever be as popular again, more whether the experience of a release like that could ever happen now…
When the last Harry Potter books came out, people were queuing at midnight, booking time off work to read them, everyone was reading it at the same time in public – it was everywhere. It felt like the whole world had paused to read the same book.
Even more recent ‘big’ releases like Iron Flame haven’t come close. Yes there were launch parties and midnight events, but most people just pre-ordered online, got it delivered, or downloaded it as an ebook. You don’t get that same scale of collective excitement anymore, even with the likes of BookTok.
So I guess I’m wondering: has the way we buy and read books now (e-readers, next-day delivery, online orders) made that kind of worldwide ‘craze’ around a book release basically impossible? Is the ‘craze’ today just being all over BookTok? Is that today’s version?
Would love to know what other people think.
by krafeli
9 Comments
There’s some form of collector craze (various releases, translations etc) but they don’t come close.
I don’t think it’s about online delivery, but much faster pace. Nothing has time to build momentum.
To quote myself:
*”There was just enough internet to connect people and get things close to your fingertips but you had to be deliberate with time and money. When you had to wait for cd with wallpaper and music making rounds around the town you better focus and memorise all you could.*
*HP (also Titanic, LOTR, Star Wars) were everywhere from teen to cooking magazines, national tv played documents about everything connected to That Big Thing (from behind the scenes to biographies of the actors). People rode bus for hours to see a movie in the city before it hit a local cinema. Nowadays every film is next big thing and even Marvel can’t catch attention before it dissolves into streaming. “*
I’m going to go with yes. It’s not just a book thing. People used to line up for hours to get the best seats when seeing a movie on opening night, but now that you choose the seat directly on purchase, you can just show up right as it starts without the long lines and all the natural social interaction that goes with that.
The convenience of pre-ordering something that is just sent to your door does the same thing IMO for books and games IMO. New book release, new game release, new movie release, making it home to catch the finale of a TV show, and the associated craze that goes with all of these things was definitely a product of it’s time where you had to physically be there at the designated time. It was madness, and it was a very social experience.
Convenience more than anything makes that virtually impossible, because it eliminates that social aspect of it.
I think it’s more simply that Harry Potter was so obscenely unique rather than “society used to he like that”
Even in eras where pop culture was mkre concentrated and even when people read more books there was never ever anything even close to Harry Potter
The movies, the school book fair trend, the “age up with your audiemce” approach and a million other things had to happen perfectly for Potter mania
I do know what you’re talking about though my local book shop started doing a small midnight release for the third one and by the time of half blood prince it was a full on street fair with food and tons of cosplay and even a guy who made a recreation of the voodoo shrunken head bus
In short that kind of craze wasn’t possible ever… except for once and only ever with one series
There is so much new content that a person has access to every single day. Global fads are never going to be as big as harry potter again. And its not a book thing either: i cant think of a tv series since early game of thrones like 15 years ago or Breaking Bad that even retained popularity over a sustained period
I think we’re past the whole midnight release thing now simply due to digital media. We don’t need to get physical copies from stores. We can buy digital or have them delivered now.
That said, I don’t think that has killed the craze. People are still reading and talking about these medias. It just looks different now.
Even back with HP you for the book, went home and read it. The big events were all PRIOR to the actual release. The intent was to always get the book.
But places like booktok, goodreads/StoryGraph and real book clubs is where you’re gonna find most of that early hype.
I think the segmentation of popular culture and social media has a big role in the lack of a breakout book series.
People, especially children, have a lot more content to consume these days. Seems like people are constantly looking for the next thing so they move on from things faster. Doesn’t help that algorithms push people into increasingly granular demographics to hold attention for as long as possible.
I think beyond the obvious “buy online” issue here, dwindling readership has just deprioritized books. They feel devalued, well below the cultural center. How can books compete with the instant gratification of short form media? I feel like more people watch content about books and reading books than they actually read. Myself included at times.
Then consider the death of the monoculture. With more fractured media and less appointment media, people are often consuming stuff on completely different ends of the spectrum at separate times. It takes a lot of virality or excitement to breakthrough enough for everyone to be hyped. That’s easier to find with certain big movies or some games, but books? Again, it’s just not the same world.
Even the books that seem to breakthrough are often fantasy catered to women readers. Readers who often engage with booktok at that.
[This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/s/7uZSbG78zf) is relevant.
This is pretty much the case for all physical media. There will never be the hype for the midnight release anymore