The London Evening Standard reports that
Bloomsbury, the British HP publishers, have revealed that pre-orders for '
Half Blood Prince' are 'substantially higher than originally anticipated'.
Chief executive Nigel Newton has predicted that 2005 profits for Bloomsbury will be 'not less than £20m'.
Quote:
The children's edition has been number one in the Amazon.co.uk bestseller list for weeks, with the adult edition at number three.
Quote:
Bloomsbury revealed that profits last year rose 7% to £16.4m on sales up 1.6% at £84.4m in a year when there was no new Potter title. The dividend is lifted 40% to 3p, paid out of earnings of 17.3p a share.
The Sunday Business Post has a similar article citing that pre-orders have 'substantially exceeded' expectations. Bloomsbury expect 'significant progress' this year.
Quote:
The optimism for the year ahead prompted Bloomsbury to offer shareholders a 47.8% increase in its final dividend payout, to 2.478p a share.
Reuters also has a similar article, adding that Bloomsbury's shares gained 3.3 percent to 316 pence.
Quote:
"U.S. and German operations have made good operational progress through the year which augurs well, while the UK performance remains robust, both on revenues and margins," Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein analysts wrote in a note.
In regards to new territories, Nigel Newton said, "We've bitten off the United States and Germany and we're chewing them."
"The plan is based on organic growth, but you can be sure that we are poised for an acquisition if we feel it will be a real benefit for us."
Bloomberg also cites that sales of previous Harry Potter books were boosted last year by the release of the movie '
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', although overall sales of the books were down 23 percent, 'as predicted', reflecting large sales of the previous Harry Potter hardback book in 2003.
Other articles that are also similar can be seen at
Sharecast,
Reuters UK,
Yahoo News! and
Sky Business News.
Sources:
The London Evening Standard,
The Sunday Business Post,
Reuters &
Bloomberg.
HBP pre-orders 'substancially higher' 
I pre-ordered from both Amazon and Amazon UK so I could have American and British covers. I have a full set of each kind and if I were any more obsessed, I would have a paperback and hardcover collection. (Don't think it hasn't crossed my mind!) Yes... I own a lot of books, Amazon loves me....
Talk about them making a fuss over it.
a proud member of rgfc 
