Profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader

It was such a great delight to know that a friend just discovered the wonder of Harry Potter books. JK Rowling has really gone a great distance with her books. It all started with the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which was first published in July 1997 with only 500 hardback copies. It was followed the next year (July 1998) with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with increased printed copies of 10,150. I guess the books has not yet created quite a stir and so when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was first printed in July 1999 only 10,000 copies were released.

But everything changed in July 2000 for the fourth installment; 4.8 million copies of the first edition of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were released. It already broke all publishing records by selling 372,775 copies on its first day. The madness further heated up with the much-anticipated release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on June 2003 with 8.5 million copies printed for the first edition. Five million copies of the fifth book were sold on the first 24 hours of its release in the US.

And now for the latest release (July 2005) of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 6.9 million copies were sold in the first 24 in the United States alone. Joanne Kathleen Rowling is now some real rich woman – even richer than the Queen Elizabeth II all told. I’m not very familiar at how authors really do earn from published works, but I’ve read somewhere that they do get paid for at least ten percent of the book’s selling price as a royalty – famous ones surely get more than that. She probably earned more from royalties from films and merchandises (I’ve got HP toys, notebooks, calendar, pillow, mouse pad; a badminton mate even got a Harry Potter bedsheet!)

Why do these fantasy books mainly aimed for children attracted adults as well? Maybe because of the different themes tackled in the series such as choices, love, intolerance, humility and slavery. The well-loved old wizard Dumbledore said one of the famous quotes from the books: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."