Potions, spells and quidditch conquer Indian market

A few days back, an important import consignment landed in India "" 10,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix British author J K Rowling's fifth book on the boy wizard. Another 20,000 copies are on their way and will hit bookstores from Amritsar to Alapuzha soon.

Penguin, the Indian distributor appointed by Bloomsbury, has so far imported 100,000 copies of the book which was released on June 21. This in itself is unprecedented, but was based on advance orders and interest generated in the book among both young and adult readers.

Several bookstores visited by Business Standard said that their stock was running out, while the demand for the book continues unabated.

Though self-help books sell much more in India, with print orders in some cases touching a million (Shiv Khera's You Can Win has sold 800,000 copies so far, for instance), Rowling's book is rewriting publishing history in the genre of fiction.

To put it in perspective, a title becomes a bestseller once it sells over 3,000 copies in a month. Rowling's book has done 30 times better than that in less than half-a-month.

The next best thing before Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was President A P J Abdul Kalam's Ignited Minds released last year which sold 30,000 copies in the first month. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Living History, although doing well, is way behind Harry Potter. Bookshop owners say the Clinton book was lucky to have been released about a month before Rowling's blockbuster.

Among the most popular works of fiction in the last decade, Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things has sold around 400,000 copies since its release in 1995.

Even Rowling's earlier book in the series "" Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire "" did not do as well as the current book. After one full year, the book had sold 30,000 in hardcover and another 60,000 in paperback. "No other book compares with the sale of the current Harry Potter book," said P M Sukumar, vice-president (sales & marketing), Penguin Books India.

According to Sukumar, against an estimated demand of 40,000, Penguin had imported 60,000 copies in order to be able to service re-orders.

"Not only did all of it get sold, we received re-orders from almost everywhere within 48 hours of the release of the book. We had to import another 40,000 copies, and another 20,000 copies are expected soon," he added.

Bookstore owners say the rush has been caused by the early reviews and advance bookings resulting from the anticipation generated much before the book actually hit the shelves. Obviously, the Muggles are lapping up the world of wizardry.