As noted in my post last week on the release dates this year of Dan Brown’s Secret of Secrets and Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping (see ‘New Dan Brown Novel Due September 9 New Hunger Games Prequel on March 18), the date given on Amazon.com for Rowling-Galbraith’s Hallmarked Man publication was the same as the new Robert Langdon adventure. That seemed a head-scratcher or unforced gaffe akin to scheduling your movie to open the same weekend as a new Star Wars film or on Super Bowl Sunday.
@LudicrousMonica noted yesterday, though, that the Hallmarked Man‘s Amazon pages in the UK, in Germany, in France, and in Australia all now list the publication date as 2 September, a week earlier than the date on the Amazon.com page (US). The speculation on the comment thread there is that the move was made to sidestep a conflict with or get a jump on the Dan Brown blockbuster book release.
My best guess is that the American .com page will shift when we get the official announcement with a cover. Next week? I have no idea why Mulholland Books would change the date on Amazon pages around the world but not in the US.
Interesting aside: three days ago Hallmarked Man was at #922 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list and #9 on their ‘Private Investigator Mysteries’ list and today is #718 on the first and #7 on the second, a 22% jump in less than half a week.
- Best Sellers Rank: #718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
That’s good news for Mulholland, it being seven months until either of their publication dates. Still, Secret of Secrets is doing significantly better pre-publication:
- Best Sellers Rank: #92 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
