Harry Potter and the amazing royalties

Simon Hoggart’s always excellent Saturday column in the Guardian has this great snippet about the publishing phenomenon that is Harry Potter:

The other day a friend of mine signed up with a new literary agency, which also handles the author of Harry Potter. The chap who looks after him took him on a tour round the offices. At one point they looked into a room where eight busy people were sitting in front of computer screens, phones and directories to hand. He asked what they did and was told that they were all engaged, full time, in gathering JK Rowling’s royalties from around the world.