Pottermore, J.K. Rowling's digital company, has reported "a record-breaking month for sales of e-books and digital audio books," despite an Edinburgh Evening News story that the company has recorded significant losses and cut staff.
Susan L Jurevics, Pottermore's chief executive officer, said that following a restructure, the company is "healthy, viable and well-positioned to capitalize on the massive global interest in the Harry Potter franchise and J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World."
Pottermore made the decision in the fall to abandon its exclusive hold on e-book and digital audio sales of the Harry Potter titles, and to partner with retailers including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, W.H. Smith and Blackwell's. The result was higher sales in December than in the previous 12 months combined.
The company has also redesigned its website, introducing new content.
Edinburgh Evening News reported that Pottermore's accounts to March 31, 2015, showed a fall in turnover from £31.8m to just £7m, and a loss of £6m. The average monthly number of employees had fallen from 40 to 30. But the paper also quoted J.K. Rowling's publicist Rebecca Salt describing Pottermore as "healthy and profitable." She added: "Pottermore has the full support and confidence of its board of directors."
The Bookseller reported in a recent print issue that Rowling had achieved her highest print book sales (through the Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market) since 2007, largely thanks to the re-jacketed novels and the edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone illustrated by Jim Kay.
A version of this article originally appear in the U.K.-based publishing trade, BookBrunch.
