Book fair thanks Potter

Harry Potter: Healthy bank balances for all publishers involved

Harry Potter has been thanked by the world's largest book fair for boosting efforts to promote reading amongst young people.

The teenage wizard, created by children's author JK Rowling, has also been credited by organisers of the Frankfurt book fair with contributing to an upturn in the industry's fortunes.

With Germany gripped by Harry Potter fever, booksellers say much of the recent growth in European and US book sales is accounted for by books for children.

Booksellers and publishers are expecting up to 300,000 visitors

The German edition of the latest Harry Potter novel - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - sold over half the initial print run on the first day of trading.

About 530,000 copies of the fourth book in the smash hit series were bought on Saturday.

"We've never seen anything like it," said Cornelia Berger, a spokeswoman for the publishers, Carlsen-Verlag.

Roland Ulmer, president of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, said the Harry Potter books proved the book would continue to prosper in the age of electronic media.

"They could be a sign that the pendulum is beginning to swing back towards greater enthusiasm for reading among the younger generation," he said.

The industry has also been buoyed by a recent study showing the number of frequent adult readers - those wading through more than 20 books a year - is on the rise.

German translation: The fourth Harry Potter book has taken Germany by storm

The fair, the publishing industry's leading marketplace where 80% of every year's rights deals are clinched, opened on Tuesday with up to 7,000 exhibitors from 107 countries in attendance.

Also appearing at the event are Gao Xingjian, Chinese winner of this year's Nobel Prize for literature, and Czeslaw Milosz, the Polish winner of the prize in 1970.

The organisers expect some 300,000 visitors before it ends next Monday.