In just a little more than an hour, the seventh and final book of the Harry Potter Series will be released here in Utah. I love it! Lines for Borders, Barnes and Noble and Walmart are off the charts. It’s the kind of economic pandemonium that actually may shadow (the allegedly revolutionary–) iPhone.

As an entrepreneur and marketing manager, I get a kick out of Harry. How does he do it? It’s a fun thing to explore the incredible value of Harry Potter and his Deathly Hallows. A recent Harry Potter Revenues article suggests the Harry Potter brand values at more than 1 billion dollars. (Wikipedia suggests 4 billion.)

J.K. Rowlings is one great success story. Assuming she gets her 15% creative royalty, let’s do the math: Movie Revenues are already nearly 1.8 billion worldwide. Over 325 million copies of the book have sold–averaged at $20 per book) which means 6.5 Billion is sales. Not including paraphernalia, or the upcoming Harry Potter Land–J.K. is sitting at a cool billion herself. If only she could get a percentage of all the contra-ban rip offs in Asia…  I love this story.

But what about the otherside of the story? The side that funds U.K.’s richest woman–and the only person ever to become a billionaire from writing books?

The entreprenuer in me wants to know, “Why do people spend so much money for this paper and ink?”

Maybe I’ll run out to the bookstore and find out… There might be a few people there planning to spend a little money tonight…