Press releases & announcements

23rd July 2007

Record breaking first 24 hour sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, the children’s, adult and reference book publisher, announced today that first day sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have been exceptional and, according to NielsenBookScan, the independent book trade monitoring service, 2,652,656 copies were sold in the first 24 hours in the UK. This record figure represents a 32% increase on the comparable figure for first day sales of the previous title, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, in July 2005 of 2,009,574.

The initial sales are in line with the Group's expectations and AGM statement on 28 June, when the company announced record export sales representing a 17% increase on last year. Ultimate sales of the book in the UK clearly remain to be seen, however, Bloomsbury is targeting a lower level of returns than in 2005. The English language edition of the book has also generated sales of 398,271 in Germany over the weekend through the group’s German subsidiary, Berlin Verlag.

Bloomsbury experienced unprecedented on-line interest in the publication of the book receiving over 9.5million hits on its website www.bloomsbury.com on Friday 20 July leading up to the publication. The first 24 hours following release saw huge demand for the live and on-demand streaming of JK  Rowling’s reading of the book with over 372,000 watching the webcast, which is still available on www.bloomsbury.com.

In addition to the good start to the launch of the seventh and last Harry Potter book, which is benefiting from the significant marketing campaign undertaken by Bloomsbury and recent film launch of the fifth title, Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix, previous books in the series are also benefiting from the new launch. A boxed set edition of all seven Harry Potter titles will be launched on 1 October 2007.

As stated in the 2006 Chairman’s statement, Bloomsbury is looking to develop new revenue streams including online advertising. This includes a bespoke advertising campaign on www.bloomsbury.com for the Royal Mail, which promotes their collection of Harry Potter stamps. The website will also be holding a major web event on Monday 30 July that will see JK Rowling hold a live webchat at www.bloomsbury.com from 14.00-15.00 BST. This will provide fans direct access to their favourite author to ask her what they have always wanted to know.

Enquiries:

Bell Pottinger
Ben Woodford/ Dan de Belder
0207 861 3232

Note to Editors

Bloomsbury was founded 21 years ago by its chief executive Nigel Newton, based on the principle of publishing books of excellence and originality for a wide market. The company undertook a full stock exchange listing in London in 1994 and has since expanded its publishing categories and geographical reach. Today, Bloomsbury has three divisions – adult, children’s and reference – which span the world’s three largest book markets of the USA, Germany and the UK, where the Company has established offices.
Bloomsbury has a strong reputation in developing new authors – Anthony Bourdain, David Guterson, Anne Michaels, J.K.Rowling, Will Self and Ben Schott – and in publishing established ones, including, Margaret Atwood, John Irving, Jay McInerney, Michael Ondaatje, Donna Tartt, Joanna Trollope and Benjamin Zephaniah. The company is well recognized for its ability to identify new authors, and employing highly professional sales and marketing skills to publish their books to maximum effect. With a worldwide library of over 11,500 titles, Bloomsbury also exploits a valuable backlist, publishing regular repeat authors.  It also develops major information databases for electronic and print publication.
Bloomsbury’s books are increasingly linked to television and film tie-ins, including The English Patient, Snow Falling on Cedars, the first four Harry Potter titles (with the fifth film premiered on 3rd July) and on TV, David Dimbleby’s How We Built Britain, The Only Boy for Me by Gil McNeil, and the forthcoming The Wild Gourmets by Guy Grieve and Thomasina Miers.  Bloomsbury’s bestseller, The Kite Runner,will be released as a major film in the UK in 2008.
2007 bestsellers

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