Harry Potter Publisher Gains Higher Sales Due to E-Books
Bloomsbury, the publisher behind the popular book and movie franchise, Harry Potter, revealed higher revenues due to the increase demand for e-books.
Bloomsbury also revealed that Harry Potter books remain as one of the best-selling titles in the company.
Bloomsbury will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the publication of the first Harry Potter book next month, with a "large consumer competition". The publishers experienced an increase in sales due to the release of the final Harry Potter film last July, 2011.
The release of boxed sets last Christmas time also had an effect with the total sales. In terms of e-books, the publishing company also experienced an increase in e-book demand from the company's backlist. One of which includes the book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, which was made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.
"It's as dramatic a shift as the move from hardback to paperback books seemed in the 1960s but well within the capability of the industry to take in its stride. People are building up their e-book libraries just like they built up their CD collections [when the music format first launched]." said Nigel Newton, the chief executive of Bloomsbury.
On the other hand, Harry Potter has caused another type of situation but this time, the consequences are not that favorable.
Harry Potter is blamed as the reason for the growing number of abandoned owls at a sanctuary in North Wales. In the book, Harry Potter has a pet owl named Hedwig and many fans of the book and movie are also keen on getting one. After having the owl, these people did not realize the responsibility that they would be facing in order to maintain a pet owl thus abandoning these animals.
These people also do not realize that "captive-bred" owls are not able to survive in the wild. These types of owls are often taken from the parent owls as eggs and did not grow up sustaining their own needs.
Mr. Toothil as well as his wife have more than 100 birds and remarked that Harry Potter had influenced this increase in number.
"We have had quite a big increase in owls coming in from the pet industry over the last 10 years. There has always been a market for pets for owls for many years, but since Harry Potter came out the increase probably doubled or tripled overnight." says Mr. Toothil.