Scholastic

Variety reports out an interesting take on the record-breaking sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

While the book and movie businesses are structured very differently, dollars the franchise generated domestically this weekend for its creator and distributor surpass what a studio might take in for a hit tentpole. Publishers typically sell books to wholesalers and retailers for a 40%-45% discount off the retail price, which means the Saturday sales alone could generate more than $150 million in receipts for Scholastic and Rowling.

8.3 million copies of the book sold in the first 24 hours after its midnight release July 21. When you consider that almost all of the marketing and advertising costs are borne by the retailers, that's a lot of dosh.  read more »

A set of photographs purporting to depict each page of the eagerly awaited seventh book in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was uploaded to the bittorrent file-sharing site, Pirate Bay.

Scholastic, Inc. this evening sent out a statement about the presumed Potter pirates, in which they suggested the "book" might not really be the book:
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"It's a madhouse here." So quoth a flack at Scholastic, the publishers of the eagerly awaited Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book in the series by J.K. Rowling.

With three days, six hours, 26 minutes, and 12 seconds until the book goes on sale in bookstores midnight on Friday night, a set of photographs depicting each page of the book was uploaded to the bittorrent file-sharing site, Pirate Bay.  read more »