The New Harry Potter Book

Gary Kruse

Gary Kruse

Just been on Amazon, and according to their "Muggle Counter", the new Harry Potter book has sold over 1.6 million copies in pre-orders.

Looks like another good year for JK and Bloomsbury then...

RichardS

Let's hope they use the profits to fund a few new writers then.....

Carol

From the online Telegraph, there is a longer article but this has some relevent facts. Here is an extract:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/06/30/nosplit/bopotter130.xml

 
The wand is mightier than the pen
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 30/06/2007


THE SALES

Hardback Paperback
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) 193,165 3,667,302
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) 187,042 3,050,953
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) 507,691 2,657,726
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) 1,318,184 2,097,870
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) 3,468,610 643,791
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) 3,618,278 286,550
Total (all figures UK only) 9,292,970 12,404,192
 
TOTAL UK SALES  21,697,162


THE RETURNS

1997 Rowling receives £8,000 from Scottish Arts Council to help her write Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

1997 American publisher Scholastic Inc pays Rowling $100,000 to publish the first Harry Potter book

1999 Rowling sells the film rights to the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Brothers for £1 million

2000 Sales of the Harry Potter series reach 30 million. Rowling's wealth is estimated at £15 million

2003 Series sales reach 200 million copies. Rowling's wealth is estimated at £280 million

2003 Scottish Arts council wonders whether successful authors should be asked to pay back their grants

2007 Series sales reach 325 million copies. Rowling's wealth is estimated at £517 million

HARRY POTTER FACTS

Eight publishers rejected Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in America). Bloomsbury paid a £3,000 advance. '

Carol

No, I don't think we are Tim. Imagine the pressure each time, just in case she produced a duffer!

Allie

I'd love to know which publishers rejected it. But I wonder if any of them had bought it, would it have been the success it has been? It seems to me that all the ingredients have to be right for something to take off the way Harry Potter did.

Carol

And how many of those 8 publishers are still in existence? So many smaller ones have been taken over by bigger publishers. It seems this limits choice. Does it?