It’s almost embarassing to mention this, and yet, it’s definitely news of the sf genres: There’s yet another facet to the ongoing promotional juggernaut that is Harry Potter. Amazon.com is now looking for “The Harry-est town in America.”
This promotion is looking for “which towns in America, on a per capita basis, are pre-ordering the most copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Amazon.com. The promotion will use the most recent U.S. Census data and include all U.S. towns and cities with a population of more than 5,000 people. Amazon will donate a $5,000 gift certificate to a charitable organization of its choice that serves the winning town. The winning town will be announced shortly after the deadline of 11:59PM PDT on 15 July 2007.”
Amazon is offering one of the steepest pre-publication discounts, selling the $34.99 book at $18.99. The list of the top 100, which is updated weekly, is at this link.
And because it’s Sunday, the editor decided to pull a few statistics out of the current list (for future lists, you’re on your own). Based on the list available at 2:30PM EDT on 8 April 2007:
* There are 21 states represented on the list.
* New York leads with 14 appearances on the list, ranging from Larchmont (12) to Monroe (94).
* None of New York’s appearances are any part of New York City.
* Georgia is on the list 11 times.
* Following Georgia are Washington and Pennsylvania, with 10 appearances each.
* Virginia has 8 appearances on the list, including number 1, number 2, and number 4.
* The most populous state, California, appears on the list 8 times.
* The second most populous state, Texas, appears on the list twice (Katy at number 5, and Granbury at number 82).
* Five states appear on the list only once: Utah, Nevada, Alaska, Idaho, and South Carolina.
* The states on the list (and the rank of their first appearances) are: Virginia (1), Washington (3), Texas (5), Pennsylvania (6), Florida (9), New York (12), New Jersey (14), Ohio (16), Georgia (20), Maryland (26), California (30), Delaware (33), Michigan (39), Colorado (56), North Carolina (57), Utah (60), Nevada (70), Alaska (72), Illinois (74), Idaho (83), and South Carolina (95).
Amazon is also listing the number of copies of the book pre-ordered. At press time, that number was approximately 450,000. They’re updating that number hourly on this page.