She can't kill Harry!
I really think it's a red herring. The idea of having the hero of the book die in the end would kill sales. After the initial burst the sales would disappear. Would you buy those books for your kid, knowing that he dies in the end?
She's got so many millions, poor sales certainly wouldn't hurt her, though. I guess it all depends on her editors and publishers, though. I mean, she is contracted for seven. It's not the first time she's said she wanted Harry to end w/her, and I can sort of see her point about not wanting other 'authors' to go and ruin it all w/a bunch of sad spin-offs, I mean, look what happened when someone tried to write a sequel to 'Gone With The Wind'. Man, that was pitiful!
I'd still buy them for my kids if he died, though, sure. B/c these books are so heavy - I mean, from about book 4 on, they're more like pre-teen/teen books.
But one of the many ways in which I am a weirdo is that I see death as an integral part of life, so its being a topic doesn't seem like something I'd steer my kids from.
FWIW, I went to another talk given by author Ian Rankin, who is contracted for 11 Rebus books - the next is the last - and he mentioned that his publisher would NOT let him kill off Rebus. So he thinks he might retire him to Costa del Dosh/Sol where he can still smoke in peace and maybe solve another murder.