By IANS
New Delhi : The 'P' phenomenon sure has it's grip strong over India, like elsewhere. Just 12 hours after the seventh book of the Harry Potter series was released Saturday, it sold 170,000 copies in the country, making it one of the fastest selling books on the first day of its release in all time.
While bookstores saw serpentine queues of Potter fans even when the sixth Harry Potter was released, the rate of books flying off the shelves of bookstores is definitely faster in the case of the seventh, and possibly the last, Potter book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".
"The sixth Harry Potter book sold a total of 100,000 copies on the first day of its release in India. But the seventh book definitely takes the cake with 170,000 copies sold within the first 12 hours of its release," Hemali Sodhi, chief spokesperson of Penguin India, the publishing house which represents the Harry Potter books in India, told IANS.
The estimated number of copies sold on the first day was close to 200,000.
"This is absolutely amazing. Never before have bookstores recorded such sales," she said.
"It's been a hectic lead up to the release, with complex logistics and spoiler leaks (of the book) in America, but in the end, we're delighted that it is readers who have won and the magic of Harry Potter is being enjoyed the way it should be," said Thomas Abraham, CEO and president of Penguin India.
Penguin India had received 240,000 advance bookings from bookshops until the morning before the book's release, which climbed to 252,000 by late evening.
Even then, in places like Orissa, scores of Potter fans returned home empty handed and disappointed as copies of the book was sold out within the first few hours of its release.
"We had asked Penguin India to supply at least 500 copies of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' but we received only 192 copies," Basudev Mohapatra of A.K. Mishra Agency in Orissa told IANS.
"In all my experience in book retailing, never have I seen a phenomenon like this, and I'm not sure we'll see one in a long time to come," said Hemu Subramaniam, CEO of Landmark, one of the popular bookstores in the country.
Agreed Aniyan Nair, marketing head of the Crossword bookstores chain. "We're absolutely amazed and delighted with the response. There were serpentine queues of eager readers outside all our stores throughout the country! Our stores all over have reported fabulous sales on day one."