Harry Potter's publisher Bloomsbury expects to exceed its original profit target for 2005, with pre-orders for the fictional magician's new book higher than forecast.
Bloomsbury expects profit before tax and goodwill for the year to December 2005 to be at least £20 million, compared with £16.4 million last year.
The British firm is set to publish the sixth book in the best-selling series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, on July 16th, 2005.
The fifth book in the series, published in 2003 after a three-year gap, made publishing history by selling 5 million copies within 24 hours.
US children's book publisher Scholastic holds the US publishing rights.
In a preliminary statement today, Bloomsbury reported a 6.9 per cent jump in profits before tax, goodwill and exceptional items for the year to December 2004.
There were no new Harry Potter books published in 2004. It announced a full-year dividend increase of 40 per cent, to 3 pence per share.
Aside from Harry Potter, the firm will publish new titles by authors John Irving and Ben Schott and paperback versions of its 2004 hardcover bestsellers, The Two of Usand Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, in 2005.