After a number of customer requests, we have now launched pre-ordering on selected upcoming big release titles.  Customers will now be able to place an order well in advance of the release of a title. We are initially only offering this on a small range of titles, but are working on expanding this out to eventually cover thousands of new releases.

The first two big titles that are available for pre-ordering are:

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

I think this is the big one for 2008. The first release from J.K. Rowling since the last Harry Potter, we expect this to trump most other releases. This is a book referred to in the Harry Potter series and comprises five fairy tales. Release date is the 4th of December, making this an easy Christmas gift for any Harry Potter fan.

Inheritance #3: Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

This one is going to be interesting. I got a call the other day from a marketing person at the publisher of this title, who enthusiastically told me this was going to be the biggest release since Harry Potter. I’m always a tad sceptical when wild statements like this are presented, but I do think there is a large following of the Eragon series that will be eagerly anticipating the release of this title, the third installment in the series.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, this is a huge fantasy series with a film-tie in, written by Christopher Paolini, who is only 24 years of age. The first two books have been big movers: Eragon and Eldest. Release date is just over a month away.

Without a huge amount of fanfare and pomp, the paperback editions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the final installment of the Harry Potter series) have been released.

Seeing the familiar red and black covers again (as with the hardback editions, the paperbacks have been issued in separate Children’s and Adult versions) took me back to July of last year, when our whole team at The Nile was consumed by the massive publicity and logistics effort for the hardback release.  Good times!

The scale of this promotional effort was huge, and it turned out to be a massive learning curve. I must admit, I felt more than a tinge of giddiness when we signed the embargo agreement with the publisher that allowed us to take on the advance stock for the global release day on 21 July.  The books arrived in special Harry Potter boxes sealed with tamper-proof red tape.  They could not be opened until exactly 9.30am on the release day, and prior to that we had to store them in a secure room.

Millions around the world were itching to discover the ultimate fate of beloved characters Harry, Ron and Hermione.  It felt like we were sitting on gold!

All hands were on deck for release day itself (a Saturday).  Even our accounts team were there to roll up their sleeves and hastily pack the pre-orders for shipment before the couriers arrived.

All in all, I think we did pretty well…there were scores of satisfied customers and to this day, it remains the book we have sold most copies of at The Nile.

I am often asked which are our biggest sellers, and for the most part this a very hard question to answer.  Following the modern retail trend of the “Long Tail”, we sell many books only once or twice, many catering to very niche interests.

Harry Potter 7 was something different—a true superstar among books!  Will the paperback editions find their way into the Top 10? Let’s wait and see…

Happy Reading!