I just wanted to make a quick post to put some perspective on the comparison between the Twilight series and the Harry Potter series. There’s a lot of excitement around online communities where some people seem convinced that Twilight is “better” than Harry Potter. A lot of trumpeting 14-year-old-girls seem convinced of this as fact. What I find equally annoying are press-releases from certain companies in the book industry like this one.
The Harry Potter books were released over a long period of time and The Twilight Saga has seen a much more sudden spike in popularity, so the content of the press release shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. The press release is simply an exercise in beating up book sales.
From my perspective, I’m not a big fan of either. I missed the boat on Harry Potter and have never really made the time to read it. During the peak of the anticipation over the Twilight series, I was working at a bookstore (and still am). I’ve occasionally been tempted to read it, mainly because I enjoy writing and I like the idea of satirising it and all the pre-teen girly excitement over it, but I never got around to it. I have seen the Harry Potter movies because my wife loves it, but I haven’t seen Twilight.
Here is a simple list of approximate booksales for each of the books:
120 Million Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone (1st book)
77 Million Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (2nd book)
66 Million Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (4th book)
65 Million Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince (6th book)
61 Million Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (3rd book)
55 Million Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (5th book)
44 Million Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (7th book)
17 Million Twilight (1st book)
I can’t find sales for New Moon and it wouldn’t be fair to show Eclipse and Breaking Dawn as they are only available in hardcover (in North America). The combined Twilight Saga (all 4 books combined) have sold 53 Million copies – beating only one single book from the Harry Potter Series. It is worth noting that Deathly Hallows sold 15 Million copies in the first 24 hours – almost as many as Twilight has ever sold.
Of course, there’s no accounting for taste (The Spice Girls have sold 60 Million records worldwide). In terms of entertainment, I’m sure the hormonal lusting in Twilight speaks volumes to the majority of the books fans. It’s never going to appeal to very many guys or very many adults, though – something Harry Potter does.
So if you can’t easily measure quality, here is an objective fact: In terms of literary worth, Meyer herself says that she should not be compared to J.K. Rowling.
