Artemis Fowl firm sees €1.7m in profits

Crime pays – at least the fictional sort – for Ireland's best-selling children's author, Eoin Colfer. New figures show that accumulated profits at his firm more than doubled to €1.669 million last year.

The former primary school teacher has sold more than 25 million books, translated into 44 languages around the globe, about the adventures of his teenage criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl.

In July, Disney confirmed that the adventures of Artemis Fowl are to be made into a movie with one of Hollywood's best-known actors, Robert De Niro, executive producer on the project. One of the most influential figures in cinema, Harvey Weinstein, is also to produce with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix scribe Michael Goldenberg writing the screenplay.

The film will cover the first two books of the series.

Colfer published the eighth and final book in the best-selling Artemis Fowl series last year and the new accounts reflect the financial success of the final instalment. They show that Artemis Fowl Ltd’s cash pile increased by €919,000 from €819,332 to €1.738 million at the end of December last.

The figures just filed show that the firm last year increased profits by €956,226 from €713,201 to €1.669 million.

The firm’s revenues are generated through book advances and royalties received during the year.

Colfer resigned from his teaching post after the success of the debut Artemis Fowl in 2001. His wife, Jackie Colfer, acts as a director of Artemis Fowl Ltd.

The 48-year-old author has described the series as "Die Hard with Fairies". The initial print run for the final Artemis book, The Last Guardian, ran to one million copies.