The Versatile Master Artist

All creatures were stunned by Miss Hepburn’s beauty, full of classical charm, forgetting to breathe, even the sparrows outside the window stopped chirping.

It’s as if this scene has been replayed from yesterday.

March 25th, an afternoon in London, witnessed such a fleeting moment.

Every person around the Oxford Street Waterstones area silently stared at the illustrations on the small cart.

Even the family shoppers passing by, carrying various shopping bags, inadvertently stopped their conversation upon seeing the promotional poster on the Waterstones trolley, twisting their necks in surprise.

Like a live performance of a silent film.

The British pride themselves on being gentlemen, yet buried deep within them is a hyperactive gene akin to football hooligans.

The Johns Bull certainly made a racket when needed, no quieter than their American relatives. Full brawls have been staged in Parliament, even at solemn events like coronation ceremonies.

Outside Westminster Cathedral, the noise was deafening.

And here—this is the most bustling commercial street in the UK!

To quiet these people down, breaking out riot police wouldn’t help.

Yet an illustrated poster achieved it!

Although, it was just a fleeting moment, even the journalists covering it were completely captivated by The Little Prince promotional poster, failing to notice it.

But it really did.

Art softens hearts more effectively than power, this truth has been verified once again.

”Hey!”

The young Black man in the front row was too mesmerized by the illustration.

The Starbucks hot drink in his hand spilt onto his pants, scalding him into stomping his feet continuously.

His complaints, like a hammer shattering glass, broke the odd atmosphere around.

Only then did people pull themselves out of that strange silence.

Disconnected in their thoughts, many finally managed to divert their gaze from The Little Prince’s illustration poster.

They all had some inexplicable feelings.

What exactly just happened?

”Wow, I love it. Amazing, Unbelievable...”

Despite the scald on his leg, the young Black man kept his eyes glued to the promotional page ahead.

His thick lips were spraying various exclamatory words like a fast-paced rap.

”So weird, so weird...”

The literary young woman with pink earrings also stared at the promotional poster, frowning as she felt the impact of the illustration, mumbling softly.

The literary young woman felt.

This cover image felt very special.

Though decades have passed since the French author created this fairy tale.

A supplemental illustration,

However, it gave her a feeling that perfectly matched the innocent, dream-like atmosphere of The Little Prince’s text.

Much like it was a naturally paired match with the previous edition of The Little Prince she read.

No,

Not just matching well.

”This promotional cover... I really feel like it matches the sense of Saint-Exupéry’s original illustrations more closely, unbelievingly.”

Kelly softly voiced the literary girl’s sentiment: ”Seeing this picture is like reading The Little Prince once more in a second, watching countless stars flow past before my eyes.”

”Truly intoxicating.”

She was filled with love in her eyes.

”Hey, friend. Is there an option for this illustration poster among the signing event’s souvenir gifts?”

The Waterstones staff took The Little Prince’s cover poster off the small trolley, placing it a few meters in front of Kelly and her friend.

Seeing this, Kelly hurriedly asked.

Kelly was an amateur illustrator and poster enthusiast, collecting all kinds of illustration posters in her spare time, some quite rare.

Currently, the most cool poster in her collection is the movie poster drawn by New York Illustrator Drew Struzan for the 2001 Spider-Man blockbuster.

Drew Struzan’s rank in the illustration field was more senior than Vellein as a top artist. The depiction of Spider-Man weaving a web between Twin Towers in the film poster became rare after the 911 attacks that same year.

Someone once offered 220 pounds at enthusiast meetups to buy it, but Kelly never parted with it.

Upon seeing this poster at first glance.

The blonde girl knew her favorite poster collection’s name needed a change.

”I’m sorry, the commemorative gift seems to be a small bookmark printed with a rose design, in total 200 pieces.”

The staff glanced at the long row of journalists outside the shop taking pictures, scratching his head in surprise. ”Considering the number of people queueing now, it’ll likely be first-come, first-served.”

”A sight so rare.”

The staff mumbled softly.

The number of waiting customers was more than staff anticipated.

But it’s not considered a big problem.

The Waterstones on Oxford Street is nicknamed ”Celebrity Bookstore.”

Working here means potentially encountering various celebrities and famous authors daily; even several Nobel Prize in Literature winners have hosted signing events here.

It’s deemed as the Mount Olympus in the book sector.

The staff has seen much larger-scale events than this.

In the publishing industry, the influence of authors is limited, and each bookstore’s capacity is limited as well.

By the consensus among UK publication experts, typically a book signing event can have 200 readers attend and purchase books, considered a big success.

Small authors occasionally experience embarrassing scenes selling three or forty books, sometimes even fewer.

Just at Oxford Street’s Waterstones, the threshold for judging a successful first-day signing event is at least doubled compared to other branches.

Given the distribution of all Waterstones branches in the UK and the model summing past sales experiences.

Generally, for new book releases.

The number of books sold during the signing event at the Oxford Street bookstore, add a zero to this number, can roughly estimate the entire British Isles’ total sales including online platforms.

In other words, if the first-day signing event here sold 200 books, its books’ daily sales across the British Isles would be approximately 2000 copies.

Allen Garner’s Syrup Walker sold 497 books at the Oxford Street signing event, with the entire UK’s first-day sales at 5321 copies, first-week sales were 15,000 copies, ranking sixth on Moonlight News book weekly sales chart that period.

2016 annual sales for Syrup Walker was about 260,000 copies.

Considered quite good among children’s books, while in the historical sales records for books that held first-day signing events on Oxford Street, it’s just barely passing the standard.

Following this estimation model,

The new edition of The Little Prince would have to reach over 400 copies today at the signing event to possibly meet the board’s set goal of 300,000 copies annual sales.

Mostly all super best-selling books at Waterstones exceeded one thousand copies on the first day.

The record-breaking sales figure was created fifteen years ago by Scholastic Group’s consistent cash cow Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Sold 3200 copies, J.K. Rowling signed until nightfall, managing to sign only half of those. UK’s first-day sales reached 5.3 million copies, US first-day sales hit 6.7 million copies. Sold 12 million copies on the first day, more than countless big writers sold in a lifetime combined.

Such monstrous sales depend on how many copies the bookstore has in stock; they can sell that number of books.

Creators bringing such revenue to publishers deserve the entire Scholastic Group’s board’s kneeling, calling them ancestors.

Not to be compared to The Little Prince and Detective Cat.

According to Osborne’s plan, if today’s signing event sells 600 books and surpasses 5000 copies on the first day, it won’t be in vain for him to attend tirelessly; the board would be broadly satisfied with such results.

What genuinely surprised the staff was the scene where all the present audience collectively dazed.

It was his first seeing an illustration create such absurd effects in his decades-long career.

Such a bookstore employee facing a bunch of The Little Prince fairy tale books was also instantly shaken by the wonderful visual communication feeling from the cover illustration.

However,

All he saw were stacks of The Little Prince.

After a few seconds of impact, he got used to it a lot more.

Showing it to the crowd, the effect was beyond just shaking.

Completely like witchcraft!

Not achieved even at the nearby Burberry’s new release show.

Not achieved by Syrup Walker.

Not even achieved by the legendary Harry Potter.