New JK Rowling book raises £4 million in a week
Howard Lake | 19 December 2008 | News
Sales of JK Rowling’s latest book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, have raised over £4 million in just seven days for the Children’s High Level Group (CHDG), the charity co-founded in 2005 by the author and Emma Nicholson MEP to make life better for vulnerable children. With over 2.6 million copies sold worldwide, the book has become the fastest selling title of 2008.
Rowling has waived her royalties, and net proceeds from sales will be donated to the charity.
“I am absolutely delighted that so much money has been raised”, said Rowling, “and would like to thank everyone who has so far purchased a copy of the book. All royalties will be going to help children without families, many of them with disabilities, whose voices have been unheard for many years.”
Richard Alderslade, Chief Executive of CHLG, said: “Once again, we’d like to extend our thanks to JK Rowling for her ongoing support and for the wonderful gift of Beedle; not only the beautiful handcrafted copy we auctioned last year, but for allowing us to publish the tales so that people everywhere can enjoy them.”
Currently the top-selling book of the year in the USA Today and the Daily Telegraph charts and number one on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com and Waterstones.com, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is published by CHLG in collaboration with Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon.
In 2007, JK Rowling produced seven individual copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Each was handwritten and illustrated on vellum, bound in brown morocco leather and mounted with different semi-precious stones. Six of the books were given by the author to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books over the last 17 years; the seventh was given to CHLG and auctioned by the charity at Sotheby’s in London, raising £1.95 million.
www.chlg.org
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.