Scholastic Responds on Sales Issue

Nov 04, 2005

Posted by: Melissa Anelli

Uncategorized

The Book Standard reported yesterday on Scholastic’s response to a claim in The Independent last week that sales of HBP in the US were not as high as expected.

Kyle Good, vice president of corporate communications and media relations for Scholastic, responded to the The Independent article in a statement Monday evening. “I wish to correct the misrepresentations in Nicholas Wapshott’s article, “Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Print Run: 2.5 Million Books Unsold in the U.S.” from October 30, 2005,” she said, “since Scholastic was not contacted prior to the publication of story.”
While Good confirmed the massive print runs of the book, she refuted claims that the unsold books were a problem and burden for Scholastic: “As part of our overall plan for the biggest book launch in history, we consulted with retailers and assessed their needs for the initial demand for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which we successfully met. Accordingly, our distribution plan anticipated returns and we believe our financial statements reflect appropriate provisions for such returns.”





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