With the date—July 21—set for the publishing event of the year, the release of J.K. Rowling’s latest “Harry Potter” novel, signs of the oncoming consumer frenzy are already here.
Amazon said today that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” first-day advance orders taken on yesterday exceed the online retailer’s first-day pre-order number of the previous edition of the series by 547 percent, according to a report by Reuters.
Rowling announced the name of the seventh and final Potter book on her Web site yesterday.
Lisa Holton, president, Scholastic Trade Books and Book Fairs, told Book Business in an interview in the February issue that the publication of this final “Potter” novel will not signify a true end to the series for Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the popular series.
“The beauty of our business is next year, millions of new readers are coming on board that haven’t been to ‘Hogwarts’ yet,” she said. “So, Scholastic’s challenge is to make sure we reach those 8 year olds and assume they’re going to start the ‘Harry Potter’ journey by themselves.”
- Companies:
- Amazon.com
- Scholastic Inc.