J.K. Rowling has written 8 Harry Potter Books, including the new Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script for the new stage play in London. The entire franchise has made over a billion dollars. The author told Reuters that there would be no more stories or novels based on Potter.
“He goes on a very big journey in these two plays and then, I think we’re, yeah, I think we’re done,” Rowling said. “This is the next generation, you know, so I’m thrilled to see it realised so beautifully. But no, Harry is done….I never wanted to write another novel, but this I think this will give the fans something special.”
Online booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble have proclaimed that the Cursed Child book set a new record for pre-orders. Scholastic, the Cursed Child publisher in the US, released a print run of 4.5 million for the North American market. Previous Potter titles sold over 2 million units per week when first debuted.
I can see how an author can get burned out writing so many titles about the same character, but the book selling industry really depends on surefire bestsellers. It is very likely that this single Cursed Child title will be putting publishers revenue in the green, both for print and e-books.
I think its only a matter of time before Disney or another major corporation buys the rights to Harry Potter and starts publishing new books and doing standalone movies.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
