Sales of Harry V Break Records in Independent Bookstores

Not only was it a record-breaking weekend for independent bookstore sales -- fueled by the official publication of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix -- but records off the sales floor fell as well, as 441 bookstore locations reported their weeks' sales to the Book Sense Bestseller List. This was the largest number of selling locations to have reported sales, and their totals outstripped by far previous tallies.

Independent booksellers reported sales across the board of 33 percent more units than the previous week, as Order of the Phoenix increased both in-store traffic and overall sales.

The title achieved phenomenal numbers in independent bookstores. Debuting at number one on the Book Sense Children's Fiction Bestseller List, Order of the Phoenix sold 100 times more units in reporting independent booksellers than the bestselling book in the children's category the previous week, and 70 times more units than the average bestseller sales of any book in any category during the prior six-week period from April 27 to June 8.

Based on data from reporting stores, ABA estimated that sales in independent bookstores for Order of the Phoenix over the weekend slightly exceeded the independents' market share of retail book sales in an extraordinarily competitive market.

Sales figures for the Book Sense Bestseller List are compiled on Tuesdays from data gathered from the previous sales week ending midnight Saturday and are e-mailed to the reporting stores, publishers, and the media on the following Tuesday. The full list is published each Thursday in Bookselling This Week, and is available for downloading in three formats at http://www.bookweb.org/booksense/bestsellers/. In addition, extended bestseller lists for the Hardcover Fiction, Hardcover Nonfiction, Paperback Fiction, and Paperback Nonfiction categories -- which include titles ranked 16 to 50 -- is available at http://www.bookweb.org/booksense/bestsellers/#extended.

Participating booksellers note that reporting to the list takes only minutes, especially using the Nielsen/BookScan option. For more information on reporting, go to http://www.bookweb.org/booksense/listmarketing/ and click "New Bestseller Reporting Options Explained."