Potter Discounts, Numbers and Mysteries (As If You Needed More)

by Jim Milliot and Steven Zeitchik, with reporting by Diane Roback, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 7/18/2005

As you may have heard, a little book called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince broke a few opening-day sales records this weekend, selling 6.9 million copies, besting Bill Clinton last year and the series' own high watermark two years ago, both of which sold in the 5-million-copy range.

Of course opening-day is rarely a useful barometer for books, which makes some of this analysis less-than-meaningful. (Scholastic seemed keen to underplay the angle even with this book; a spokesperson noted that "it's not just about the weekend," and added that the previous books sold 5 million in the first weekend but 6 million in the two weeks that followed. If that rate held here—less likely given the even greater media buzz of this release, but still—the publisher would have to go back to press for more than just the 2.7 million it went back for last week.)

In the U.K., where the population is about a fifth the size of the U.S., sales came in at 2 million according to the more point-of-sale-oriented, and thus conservative, Nielsen Bookscan. The X-factor there: supermarket discounts regularly ran above 50%.

At the U.S.'s three major bookselling outlets, Half-Blood Prince set new standards as well. B&N sold 1.3 million copies over the weekend, while Borders sold 850,000 copies on Saturday. Amazon's worldwide orders topped 1.5 million.

Unlike with the last book's release, most indies had no problem receiving books, and there were no reports of stores running out of copies. (In fact a few stores said they sold fewer copies of Half-Blood Princethan Phoenix, because, they speculated, of competition from major discounters such as Wal Mart.) Two store-owners said people who had attended parties at their stores ended up buying the book at Wal Mart. Still, most owners who held an event expressed their satisfaction, pointing to press coverage of their store as an added benefit.

For Scholastic, the emphasis is now on keeping the book in stock. In addition to the company going back for 2.7 million copies last week, Scholastic said today that "trucks are ready to roll with re-supply throughout the week" for stores that need it.

In one of the minor mysteries of the book's release, the NY Times ran a review on Saturday despite no disclaimer, as in has made in other reviews, that it had obtained an early copy. Scholastic, too, says it made no copies available to any media outlet.

So how did a midnight release that weighs in at nearly 700 pages get in the next morning's paper? A company spokesperson did not respond to a call for comment by press time, but here's a thought for really eager editors looking to get a jump on future embargoes: the time difference. Reviewer Michiko Kakutani could have actually been in England or Australia, giving her a 5- or 14-hour headstart, or she could have been reading scanned pages from someone who had bought it there. Presto: no embargo-break.

Finally, the press release announcing the reprint also marked a changing of the guard at Scholastic. Quotes about Half-Blood Prince came from Lisa Holton, president of the Children's book publishing group, and not from Barbara Marcus, who had been doing pre-pub publicity. Apparently 12:01 really meant 12:01.