SEATTLE, July 13, 2005
Potter Sales Smash Own Record
1.4 Million Advance Orders Placed For Book 6 On Amazon
-
(AP / CBS)
-
Interactive Harry Potter: By the Book Forget what happened in each of the books? Read through for a brief refresher.
-
Special Report In Print Find out more about the latest books and what best-selling authors are working on.
The release of the Harry Potter book is one of the largest events of the year for retailers, as the popular series has a huge fan following and usually attracts large sales.
Scholastic Inc., the U.S. publisher of the Potter series, is printing and shipping 10.8 million copies of the latest book.
Last week in Canada, Book 6 was sold accidentally to 14 people who snagged a copy at a British Columbia grocery store. However, a Supreme Court judge ordered them to keep it a secret and asked them to return the book before Saturday's release.
News of the record-breaking orders drove shares of the Seattle-based Amazon.com up 72 cents to close at $36.31 Tuesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Rounding out Amazon's top 10 best-seller list were Dr. Seuss, John Grisham, Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, "Left Behind" novelists Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins and business writer Jim Collins. Shakespeare was No. 26, one notch below Tom Clancy.
© MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From Books
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
