Potter & overseas expansion boost H1 profits: Bloomsbury |
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Wed, 14 Sep 2005 16:05
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LONDON: Harry Potter’s out-selling popularity and overseas expansion have worked magic for publisher Bloomsbury who reported first half pre-tax profits up 12.4 percent. Full year profits would be even better, said the publisher, thanks entirely to the boy wizard and his magic on book sales.
The sale of ‘Half Blood Prince’, the latest title, would actually be accounted for in the second half of Bloomsbury’s financial year, but its pre-publication copies released overseas had generated enormous sales and the effect would certainly show in the annual results. Year-end profits should be not less than £20 million, Bloomsbury said.
The company has increased its presence overseas. In Germany and the US, it sells more and more of its titles unlike before when it merely sold book rights. After the phenomenal success of ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’, the publisher is equally upbeat about other titles from its publishing list, viz. John Irving’s new release ‘Until I find You’, Ben Schott’s next book ‘Schott’s Almanac’ and Susanna Clarke’s ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell’.
Chairman Nigel Newton said business looked good for 2006 and beyond as “we expand our publishing list and develop our international operations”. He appeared optimistic even about outperforming rivals in the publishing market which has been sluggish for half a decade.
About their star product, Newton said the latest Harry Potter title not only outsold every other book but also stimulated worldwide sales of the five earlier books. He pointed out that Rowling’s books had the ability to grow readership as was demonstrated by the ‘Half Blood Prince’. The first generation of readers are now in their teens and every subsequent title has attracted a new group of readers – mostly children.
‘Half Blood Prince’ broke all previous records by selling more than 2 million copies in the first 24 hours. In the US it sold more than 6.9 million copies during the first day. For bookstore Amazon, it was a record-breaking phenomenon – it received more than 1.5 million advance orders and over 919,000 orders were received on its website alone – the biggest best-selling new product ever sold online.
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