T ittle to whisper about in the li- Even at companies like Scholas-<br > .braries and nothing to shout tic--where the big news was a drop in<br > 1 Jabout from the rooftops: Chil- earnings and layoffs--the Harry Pot-<br > dren s book publishing had what Dick ter phenomenon escalated. When the<br > Robinson， Chairman of ScholasUc， wizard flew back into town on the eve<br > called "a very difficult year." Kathy of the summer equinox， there were<br > Dawson， Executive Editor of G. P. Put- parties at midnight， kids reading<br > nam s Sons， notes， "All publishing is books bigger than they were， and<br > having a hard time right now. The booksellers across the nation sporting<br > economy isn t good." She sees "more beatific grins as they worked overtime<br > p~ssure for editors to bring in money- selling a whopping 5 million books in<br > making projects， but of course， editors 24 hours.<br > mustalsobringinthebookstheylove." .Scholastic spent more than $3<br > Yet industry reports also show that million promoting this long-awaited<br > last year many publishing houses in- fifth book in the legendary series，<br > creased their operating margins sig- after laying off about 4 percent of its<br > nificantly:The margins at Harper- staff just prior to Harry s spellbinding<br > Collins， Educational Development return. Four days after its release， an-<br > Corporation， Penguin， and John Wiley other 800，000 copies of Harry Potter<br > allincreased and allwere above 10 per- and the Order of the Phoenix were set<br > cent， according to Publishers Weekly. to be printed， and the total surpassed<br > Numbers reported during the year 11 million at last count.<br > by the Associatkm of Aznerican Pub- "It was nice to see that this series<br > llsheks (AAP) also seemed to belie the continues to do so well，" comments<br > poor economy at times: One month， Steven Meltzer， Managing Editor of<br >" midyear， the report was that children s Durton s Children s Books. "The num-<br > Paigerback and hardcovar net sales had bers speak for themselves." Harry V is<br > inCreased by 645 percent over the same expected to sell 10 million copies in<br > month the preVious year， and the year- the )，ear， generating sales of between<br > to-date number was up by 67 percent. $150 million and $175 million for<br >