Harry’s simply magic for bookshop sales: [2 All-round First Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 18 July 2005: 3.
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Abstract
HARRY Potter has provided a boom to booksellers across the nation, with some stores reporting every third book they sold at the weekend was the latest instalment of the J.K. Rowling epic.
With worldwide sales of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince expected to top 10 million copies, Rowling is believed to have earned $47million so far from her sixth book about the schoolboy wizard, adding to the $1.3billion she is already worth.
Scholastic, the Rowling book’s US publisher, printed a record 10.8 million copies for that market. This beats the previous record of 8.5 million copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2003.
Full Text
HARRY Potter has provided a boom to booksellers across the nation, with some stores reporting every third book they sold at the weekend was the latest instalment of the J.K. Rowling epic.
With worldwide sales of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince expected to top 10 million copies, Rowling is believed to have earned $47million so far from her sixth book about the schoolboy wizard, adding to the $1.3billion she is already worth.
Many Australian shops held special events on Saturday, when the book went on sale at 9.01am, with everything from special train trips to skydiving wizards boosting sales.
Allen & Unwin distributed more than 750,000 copies of the magic tome to Australian bookstores. Spokesman Andrew Hawkins described booksellers as “tired but happy”.
Large chain Dymocks expected to sell at least 50,000 copies on Saturday.
Internationally, the story is the same. In Britain, about 2million copies were sold.
Scholastic, the Rowling book’s US publisher, printed a record 10.8 million copies for that market. This beats the previous record of 8.5 million copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2003.
The book has held the No1 spot at internet bookstore Amazon.com since it was announced late last year. It has worldwide pre-orders of more than 2 million copies, 1.4 million from Amazon alone, with about half from the US.
The manager at Readings Books and Music in Melbourne, Jamie O’Loughlin, said one in every three books sold at the store over the weekend was the Harry Potter latest. Unlike any other book, its appeal transcended all age groups, he said.
“The kids are excited, but at our store it’s an equal proportion of kids and adults, and the adults are excited too. The retailers are more prepared this time around — we knew we would sell by the bucketload.”
Gleebooks in Sydney’s inner-city Glebe, normally associated with academics and high-minded literary gatherings, organised a special train described as the“Gleewarts Express” to take a trip to the NSW Southern Highlands.
Manager Roger Mackell said Gleeboks sold 1200 books on the day and it was noticeable that many teenagers and young adults who had grown up with theseries were keen to buy.
“There’s never been anything quite like it,” he said. “It was very noisy on the train on the way down, but on the way back, after they got their books, it was dead quiet. If reading enchants you when you’re young, you keep reading.”
At Borders Books and Music in Brisbane, manager Natalie Billing said: “We haven’t had time to stop and count, but we’ve sold lots and lots.”
Treasurer of the Booksellers Association Derik Dryden said independent bookshops had been concerned that heavy discounting by chains like K-Mart and Big W would eat into sales, but most had been pleasantly surprised by strong turnover.