Scholastic Goes Back to Press With Third Potter Printing

Following the weekend of staggering sales, retailers nationwide were clamoring for more copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. On Wednesday, June 25, Scholastic announced that it was going back to press for a third printing of 800,000 copies of Harry V.

Michael Jacobs, Scholastic's senior vice-president, trade division, told BTW that the weekend's sales "went beyond our wildest expectations" and that Scholastic was working "to do everything we can to satisfy our customers' demand" while still trying to evaluate the ultimate sales curve of the title. He noted that Scholastic would be shipping 10,000 to 11,000 copies of Order of the Phoenix that were in the Scholastic's warehouse to fulfill outstanding backorders and that Scholastic would be working to expedite availability of the title by supplying regional and national wholesalers "in the hopes that they will re-supply local bookstores."

While noting that "the demand right now is clearly outstripping the supply," Jacobs said, "we're trying to be very mindful that we have all kinds of customers and we are trying to serve them all without being preferential to any." In the immediate future, he said that independents would be best served by looking to regional and national wholesalers for stock.