Harry Potter is fastest selling book ever, outsells the Bible
Pastor Dale Morgan
Harry Potter is fastest selling book ever, outsells the Bible*
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:37am BST 24/07/2007
More than one UK household in 10 bought a copy of the final Harry Potter
book within the first 24 hours of its release, making it the
fastest-selling book in this country’s history and giving JK Rowling a
huge pay day.
Harry Potter sold 2.7 million copies in the UK in 24 hours
A total of 2,652,656 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold
in the UK on Saturday, according to figures released yesterday by
Nielsen BookScan, the independent book trade monitoring service which
measures point of sale volumes.
Although there had been speculation, always played down by Bloomsbury,
JK Rowling’s British publishers, that the first day sales could break
the three million mark, the figure smashed the previous record -
2,009,574 copies, held by Rowling’s previous book, Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince.
There are 24.2 million households in the UK.
A standard publishing contract gives an author 10 per cent of the cover
price - £17.99 in the case of Deathly Hallows - meaning that Rowling,
already estimated to be worth more than £500 million, earned almost £4.7
million from UK buyers on the first day.
So successful is she, however, that observers believe that she may have
negotiated to receive 15 per cent or even 20 per cent of the cover price
of each copy sold.
Deathly Hallows was published simultaneously, in English, in more than
90 countries.
Though few figures from overseas were available last night, it is
thought that the worldwide first day sales could top 12 million.
In America, it was claimed that first day sales were a record-breaking
8.3 million. Bloomsbury said, however, that the figure was the number of
copies ordered by retailers and that actual sales to readers were likely
to be lower.
All 250,000 copies made available in Holland and Belgium sold out in 24
hours, W H Smith’s Paris branch sold 3,000 alone and the first day sales
in Germany and India were 398,271 and 100,000 respectively.
Though the three million barrier was not broken in the UK, Bloomsbury
said that it was “delighted” by the record.
A spokeswoman said: “It’s huge, the fastest-selling book of all time it
outsells the Bible. We’re grateful to all our printers, distributors and
retailers worldwide for the most astoundingly successful book launch
ever and to JK. Rowling for the most triumphant close to a magnificent
series.”