Bloomsbury Publishing, the British publishing company that published the Harry Potter books, reported that its global eBook sales rose 70 percent year-over-year, during the period of March 1 through May 31st, 2012.
The company issued its Interim Management Statement last week, and revealed that print sales during the same period fell by 2 percent. ThisisMoney.co.uk has more: “Last year print sales were £78.9million and those for ebooks were £5.7million, meaning that if the latest trends continue throughout the year, they would result in an overall rise in turnover. Crucially for profits, ebooks should provide a higher margin.”
Bestselling titles that helped the publishing house during the period include: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall‘s River Cottage Veg Everyday!, Wisden Cricketers‘ Almanack 2012, Double Cross by Ben MacIntyre, Heston at Home by Heston Blumenthal and Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.
Harry Potter eBooks went on sale in March. Bloomsbury participates in the sale of these eBooks, receiving a share of the revenues, though the company did not break out sales figures for these new-to-digital titles.