Bloomsbury works its magic

The fifth instalment of the Harry Potter series will be the biggest seller yet when it appears on bookshop shelves in June, publisher Bloomsbury predicted yesterday.

Chief executive Nigel Newton said pent up demand for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the first new adventure from the boy wizard since July 2001, should ensure that sales of the publishing sensation scale new heights.

"We're experiencing phenomenal demand, not least because we have three years of new readers to carry on board," he said. "It should be the bigger selling Harry ever."

Amazon.co.uk yesterday said it already had 130,000 pre-orders for the book - more than double those for the last Harry Potter title.

Mr Newton was speaking after Bloomsbury reported a better than expected rise in profits - despite the absence of a new Potter adventure for the first time in five years.

Turnover climbed 11% to £68m, while pre-tax profits rose 19% to £11m in the year ending December 31 2002.

The dividend was raised 14% to 17p per share. Shares rose 7.5p to 740p.

Revenues were driven by The Little Friend - the first book in a decade by Secret History author Donna Tartt - and Schott's Original Miscellany, a trivia book written by first time author Ben Schott which topped best-seller lists over the Christmas period.

Mr Newton said investment in future titles had risen 56% to £11m as Bloomsbury had sought new revenue streams.

Analysts estimate around 40% of the groups sales come from the Potter franchise.

Yesterday Bloomsbury admitted for the first time that 56% of revenue came from children's books - the vast majority of which relate to continuing sales of the preceding four Potter titles.

It also highlighted the signing of unknown author Susanna Clarke, who has written a 1,000 page novel about magicians that analysts are already describing as Harry Potter for adults.