Why Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Won't Be Profitable for Booksellers

Bookstores everywhere are getting ready for the millions of people that are eager for the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in July, the latest in the Harry Potter book series. J.K. Rowling's stories about a boy wizard and he's battles against evil is among the fastest-selling books in history, retailers expect nothing different from the newest edition. Some stores have already broken records for orders long before its release. Amazon.com has reported over one million advanced orders, easily out doing the number of advanced orders for "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". Amazon is not the only one breaking its own records for advance orders.

Sadly, even if the books sell good the profits will be minimal. Discounts are then main reason. The Book's list price is 34.99, but stores like Wal-Mart and Amazon.com will sell it for almost fifty percent off. Barnes & Noble and Borders, the world's largest booksellers, will have it at forty percent off. The people hurt by this the most are small independent bookstores, because they either have to lower their prices too or not sell the book. Of course, the big booksellers are not making much profit from them either. Cutting prices does drive sales but with minimal gain, the retailers have to try to make the buyers "returning customers". The most common way they do that is with loyalty cards, you the old buy six, (or whatever) and get one free. Loyalty cards are effective. The bookselling markets have lost millions discounting the Harry Potter books as much as they have. This makes the sellers less then enthused about the release. However, this problem is not just with Potter books it is the same with almost every bestseller.

The publisher of the Potter series has planed a12 million (record-breaking) copies release of "Deathly Hallows"; book retailers do not expect any problems getting their copies. They hope! Running out of books might cause a riot. Most bookstores get the books within 24 hours of its release.

But, it is still a lot of pressure Scholastic Corp.