Without a huge amount of fanfare and pomp, the paperback editions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the final installment of the Harry Potter series) have been released.

Seeing the familiar red and black covers again (as with the hardback editions, the paperbacks have been issued in separate Children’s and Adult versions) took me back to July of last year, when our whole team at The Nile was consumed by the massive publicity and logistics effort for the hardback release.  Good times!

The scale of this promotional effort was huge, and it turned out to be a massive learning curve. I must admit, I felt more than a tinge of giddiness when we signed the embargo agreement with the publisher that allowed us to take on the advance stock for the global release day on 21 July.  The books arrived in special Harry Potter boxes sealed with tamper-proof red tape.  They could not be opened until exactly 9.30am on the release day, and prior to that we had to store them in a secure room.

Millions around the world were itching to discover the ultimate fate of beloved characters Harry, Ron and Hermione.  It felt like we were sitting on gold!

All hands were on deck for release day itself (a Saturday).  Even our accounts team were there to roll up their sleeves and hastily pack the pre-orders for shipment before the couriers arrived.

All in all, I think we did pretty well…there were scores of satisfied customers and to this day, it remains the book we have sold most copies of at The Nile.

I am often asked which are our biggest sellers, and for the most part this a very hard question to answer.  Following the modern retail trend of the “Long Tail”, we sell many books only once or twice, many catering to very niche interests.

Harry Potter 7 was something different—a true superstar among books!  Will the paperback editions find their way into the Top 10? Let’s wait and see…

Happy Reading!