The phenomenal sales of the four Harry Potter books have played a major role in the recent success of Scholastic. The company, however, does not have a signed agreement with author J.K. Rowling for book five, provisionally titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. To allay investors' fears, Barbara Marcus, president of the children's book publishing and distribution group, told analysts that she had just returned from the U.K., where Rowling's agent, Christopher Little, "told us, if asked, that we should continue to say we are the U.S. publisher" for Rowling.
Marcus refused to pin down a release date for the title, which had been tentatively set for next summer. There has been speculation in the British press that publication has been pushed back until the fall. Marcus told analysts that it was "premature" to talk about when the book may be finished. She said that the story "is a little more complex" than Rowling anticipated and that Rowling doesn't want to discuss dates until the manuscript is "closer to closure." Rowling "wants the freedom to write the story the way she thinks it needs to be told, and we are respecting that," Marcus said.
In the first six months of fiscal 2002, Scholastic has sold $54 million worth of Potter books, $4 million more than it predicted it would sell for the entire year. Scholastic is now projecting that it will sell $70 million worth of Potter books in fiscal '02.
