4 Million Dollar Promotional Coup?

Posted on | December 14, 2007 |

Well, as usual I am kind of late with my holiday shopping so, I hop on Amazon (if Amazon were a place I would live there - anecdotal testament to the continued existence of brick-and-mortar booksellers)….  Apparently Amazon has purchased one of seven copies of J.K. Rowling’s, The Tales of Beedle the Bard at auction at Sotheby’s.

The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

Amazon is doling out snippets and photos of it’s purchase on the Amazon site with promises of more to come - in a very episodic manner. From the message boards, one Amazon insider commented:

We plan to take the book on tour to libraries and schools so that kids can get a look at the magic in the Bard’s own handwriting.…. We have no plans yet beyond that (but would of course love to hear all of your thoughts). Somehow I don’t think they’ll let me keep it in my cubicle.

To help seed WOM, there is a video to pass along, and comments are welcome from all comers (unfortunately for the moment, the J.K. Rowling the Anti-Christ movement seem to be the most verbose - no comment). But I think its brilliant - hope they do more with it.

Cool Amazon!!

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