Book publisher Bloomsbury is anticipating a boost later this year with the publication of the first illustrated editions of the Harry Potter series and the launch on HBO Max of the first Harry Potter TV series. “This will introduce the books to a new generation of readers,” says the publisher with publication of results for the year to February. The first story about the boy wizard and his friends was published 29 years ago and filled presses at Clays for several years.
There are other strong sellers anticipated for later, this including two titles from Sarah Maas in the expanding romantasy genre. “We have had exception pre orders of major titles,” the publisher says. It was voted publisher of the year in the British Book Award in May last year.
This should swing sales in the consumer division upwards after reporting a drop in the 25/26 financial year. Revenue in the consumer division fell to £218.2 million (£277.7 million) with pretax profits at £20.5 million (£30.3 million). There is a strong pipeline for this financial year the company says.
Overall Bloomsbury’s revenue was £325.9 million (£361 million) with a pretax profit of £46.9 million (£42.1 million).
Where consumer sales fell, academic and professional contributed more. The publisher says that sales grew in the second half across print digital and rights, though only digital and other showed a growth in sales for the year as a whole. In all the division reported sales of £107.7 million (£873.3 million) with digital responsible for the grow as it expanded from £42.2 million to £66.2 million.
Despite the continuing swing to digital sales, print remains strong, contributing £37.7 million (£37.9 million) to the division. Revenue falling into the Other category rose to £3.8 million (£3.2 million). Licensing of content for AI is showing good growth says Bloomsbury.
