Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sets new sales records in US, Canada

BY A CORRESPONDENT

24 July, 2007:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is creating waves in Canada beating past sales of the same series from coast to coast.

Just within 48 hours, that's roughly two days, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 812,000 copies in the bookshops across Canada. Harry Potter and the Half blood Prince, the sixth book in the series, had sold 650,000 copies within the first 48 hours, which was the national record at that time. But the seventh and last book has garnered 25% more sales than the sixth Harry Potter book.

The publishers of the book published two editions of the same book, each with a distinctly adult and child-friendly cover. It is believed that the book with the adult cover sold more copies than the childrens' edition. This can be attributed to the fact that many of the child fans of the famous Harry Potter have now grown up with their wizard hero.

The new books were sold out at an astonishing pace, almost at a pace of three books in a second during the peak hours of Pottermania. The much-anticipated release of the seventh and final installment of J.K. Rowlings ultra-popular novel series has also garnered record-breaking sales worldwide.

In the US alone, the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold out 8.3 million copies, within 24 hours of its launch, which is around 5,000 a minute. In the US, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had sold 6.9 million copies in the first 24 hours.

Amazon.com had a record number of preorders for the book, standing at a 2.2 million copies. In order to beat the competition, many retailers in the US and Canada gave huge discounts on the cover price of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

It has been reported that Daniel Radcliffe--who plays Harry Potter in the movie version--turned 18 on July 23, 2007. Radcliffe has amassed a fortune in the range of USD 40 million. There was no word on how Radcliffe would spend his birthday, though the actor said he planned to keep it low key.