Bloomsbury Regulatory News (BMY)

30 Jul 2007 07:01

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC30 July 2007 BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING Plc Records continue to be broken by the latest Harry Potter book and audio sales figures from around the world. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc announce that first day sales in Australia of HarryPotter and the Deathly Hallows have been exceptional and, according toNielsenBookScan, the independent book trade monitoring service, 573,845 copieswere sold in the first 24 hours. This figure represents a 64% increase on thecomparable figure for first day total sales of the previous title, Harry Potterand the Half Blood Prince, in July 2005 of 350,396. Total sales of all sevenHarry Potter titles in Australia are now in excess of 5 million copies. The audio edition published by HNP Limited in association with BloomsburyPublishing has entered at number one in the UK NeilsenBookscan audio best sellerlist, selling 2564 units in the first 24 hours of the adult and children'sedition of the unabridged work, read by Stephen Fry, priced at £74.99 each.According to Nielsen data the average selling price of the children's editionwas £53.36 and the adult's edition was £57.92. These sales figures follow those reported for the book in the first 24 hours on23 July when 2,652,656 copies in the UK and 398,271 in Germany were sold. The UKfigure represented an increase of 32%. In addition, Bloomsbury sales in China have shown strong sell through in shopsacross China in the first weekend of publication. Xi Dan Bookshop in Beijing andShanghai Book City sold more than 2000 copies each during the weekend of launch;Shen Zhen Bookshop sold more than 1500 copies during the launch weekend. AmazonChina were reported to have sold more than 7000 copies. Pre-orders in China weremore than 200% higher than those of the previous book. In India, the book sold an estimated 170,000 copies in the first 12 hoursbreaking the record set by its predecessor Harry Potter and the Half-BloodPrince (which sold an estimated 100,000 copies on the day of release). In Canada, sell through of the Raincoast/Bloomsbury edition(a 50:50 jointventure of Raincoast in Vancouver and Bloomsbury in London)is exceptionally highwith 855,997 of the children's edition and 74,714 of the Adult edition sellingthrough in the first week of publication. In the first seven day's, Waterstones Booksellers across their 311 branches inthe UK sold 460,000 copies, more than double their sales of the previous book. A boxed set edition of all seven Harry Potter titles will be published on 1October 2007. Ends Enquiries: Bell PottingerDan de Belder/ Algy Rowe0207 861 3232 Note to Editors Bloomsbury was founded 21 years ago by its chief executive Nigel Newton, basedon the principle of publishing books of excellence and originality for a widemarket. The company undertook a full stock exchange listing in London in 1994and has since expanded its publishing categories and geographical reach. Today,Bloomsbury has three divisions - adult, children's and reference - which spanthe world's three largest book markets of the USA, Germany and the UK, where theCompany has established offices.Bloomsbury has a strong reputation in developing new authors - Anthony Bourdain,David Guterson, Anne Michaels, J.K.Rowling, Will Self and Ben Schott - and inpublishing established ones, including, Margaret Atwood, John Irving, JayMcInerney, Michael Ondaatje, Donna Tartt, Joanna Trollope and BenjaminZephaniah. The company is well recognized for its ability to identify newauthors, and employing highly professional sales and marketing skills to publishtheir books to maximum effect. With a worldwide library of over 11,500 titles,Bloomsbury also exploits a valuable backlist, publishing regular repeat authors.It also develops major information databases for electronic and printpublication.Bloomsbury's books are increasingly linked to television and film tie-ins,including The English Patient, Snow Falling on Cedars, the first four HarryPotter titles (with the fifth film premiered on 3rd July) and on TV, DavidDimbleby's How We Built Britain, The Only Boy for Me by Gil McNeil, and theforthcoming The Wild Gourmets by Guy Grieve and Thomasina Miers. Bloomsbury'sbestseller, The Kite Runner, will be released as a major film in the UK in 2008.Bloomsbury will celebrate its 21st anniversary on 26 September 2007. 2007 bestsellersCountry Title of 2007 BestsellersUK Restless by William Boyd A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini How We Built Britain by David Dimbleby Austerity Britain by David Kynaston Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling Physik by Angie Sage 101 Things To Do by Richard Horne Cathy's Book by Weismann, Stewart & Brigg Larklight by Philip ReeveUSA Waiting for Daisy by Peggy Orenstein, Medicus by Ruth Downie Princess Academy by Shannon Hale Gone Wild by David McLimans Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain Real Food by Nina Plank Highest Tide by Jim Lynch Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan Austenland by Shannon Hale Kiki Strike by Kirsten MillerGermany Ruhelos by William Boyd Salz des Lebens by Benoite Groult Die Flucht by Tatjana GrTM?fin Donhoff Handy by Ingo Schulze DrachenlTM?ufer by Khaled Hosseini SpTM?te Familie by Zeruya Shalev This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange