Amazon.com tells associates to court Harry Potter sales

by Angus Kidman

Saturday, 03 February 2007

The final Harry Potter title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, won't ship until July 21, but online retailer Amazon.com has already started courting bloggers and other site owners to solicit pre-orders for the title.

Within 24 hours of the announcement of the release date of the last book in the best-selling series from JK Rowling, Amazon.com had developed a new series of banners and other selling tools for its Associates program, which offers site owners a small commission for directing sales towards the site.

"Harry Potter releases are a major event for Amazon.com, and the popularity of the series makes it a great opportunity for Associates to capitalize on the pre-order buzz," an email sent to Associate program members read in part. "In order to assist you in making your site visitors aware of the opportunity to pre-order the book we have created graphics and banners in a number of sizes."

According to Amazon, pre-order sales volumes tend to peak sharply in the days following the announcement of a release date. Amazon.com maintains a dedicated Harry Potter store as part of its site, selling all the books in the series as well as DVDs, computer games and other ephemera. The title of the final book in the series was announced in late December.
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