Inc., the world’s biggest online retailer, received 1.6 million orders for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” a record for any book that has yet to be released.
Worldwide pre-orders for the seventh and last Harry Potter book, due for release July 21, broke the previous record of 1.5 million set by J.K. Rowling’s sixth book in the series. Amazon, based in Seattle, began taking orders for the book Feb. 1.
Customers must place orders by noon New York time on July 17 to ensure delivery on its release date, Amazon said today in a statement. Buyers will get a $5 certificate toward a purchase in August.
Amazon shares rose $1.20, or 1.8 percent, to $69.61 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have risen 76 percent this year.
Barnes & Noble Inc. spokeswoman Carolyn Brown said the company hasn’t released its Harry Potter sales figures. Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Kolleen O’Meara said the company doesn’t disclose information about pre-orders.
Amazon is selling the hardcover of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” for $17.99. Barnes & Noble charges $20.99 online. The book, with a list price of $34.99, is published by New York-based Scholastic Corp.
The sixth installment in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” sold 6.9 million copies worldwide in the 24 hours after it was released in July 2005, according to Scholastic. There are more than 121 million copies of the U.S. editions of the first six Harry Potter books in print, the publisher says.
The first book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” was published in 1997. The novels have been translated into 63 languages, including Farsi and Chinese.
-With reporting by Carol Wolf in Cleveland and Danny King in Los Angeles. Editor: B. Walsh (bqs).
To contact the reporter on this story: Cotten Timberlake in New York at +1-212-617-5111 or ctimberlake@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Nol at +1-212-617-2384 or mnol@bloomberg.net.
-0- Jul/02/2007 20:20 GMT 07-02-07 2120GMT
