LONDON/NEW YORK: The sixth instalment in the Harry Potter series went on sale and flew off shelves around the world on Saturday, ending months of marketing hype that look set to make it the fastest-selling book in history.
Publishers say up to 10 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” could be sold in the first 24 hours, as “Pottermania” broke out across the planet.
Fans young and old poured into book stores, many dressed as witches, wizards, and other Potter characters, and millions of copies were delivered to Internet buyers.
The carefully orchestrated launch was accompanied by equally elaborate measures to stop details of the boy wizard’s latest escapades leaking out early.
When a handful of copies were sold before the deadline in Canada, purchasers were ordered not to disclose its contents, and, according to media reports, even to read it.
Children descended on the Scottish city of Edinburgh, where Potter author J.K. Rowling read from the latest book the moment witching hour passed at one minute past midnight.
“I am excited,” she said on her way into a dramatically lit Edinburgh Castle. “You get a lot of answers in this book.”
Hours after the 607-page tome was released simultaneously around the globe, Web sites ran plot summaries of the sixth and penultimate episode of the Potter saga. Early reviews also appeared, with one warning the book “ends with a shocker”.
The story promises plenty of dark twists for Harry and his pals at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.
In New York, 5,000 people crammed into a Barnes & Noble store for a party where they were treated to magic shows and hour-long queues to buy the book. As elsewhere, shops in the Big Apple stayed open late to lure buyers.
“I’m going to start this one on the subway and not stop until I finish,” said Christopher, 11, from Manhattan, wearing Harry’s trademark spectacles given out free with the book.
Bruce Robinson, in his late 30s, was rushing to finish the book before the plot was revealed in the media.
“I know one of the tabloids will reveal the ending and I want to finish it before it comes out,” he said.
Axel Bandow, 30, a Berlin resident, said Harry Potter had magically improved his language skills.
“With Harry Potter I’ve learned much more English than I ever did during all my years in school,” he said.
In Australia, thousands of “Pottermaniacs”, some carrying live snakes, besieged bookstores in the outback, in the country’s snowfields and along its beaches.
There were crowds at shops in Singapore and in New Delhi, the Indian capital, where attendants wore black capes and magician’s hats.
In London, a Portuguese girl called Carlotta was the first in the Waterstone’s chain’s flagship store to buy the new book.
“She comes from Portugal, a long way on a broomstick for a young lady,” said an actor resembling Albus Dumbledore, the fictional headmaster of Hogwarts school.
Global sales of the first five books in the seven-part series top 270 million. British retailer WH Smith said it sold 13 copies of the latest book per second during the first hour of trade on Saturday at 391 stores it opened countrywide.
But the Half-Blood Prince may not prove a windfall for everyone. The push for market share has forced retailers, under pressure from Internet sites, to slash prices.—Reuters
LONDON/NEW YORK: The sixth instalment in the Harry Potter series went on sale and flew off shelves around the world on Saturday, ending months of marketing hype that look set to make it the fastest-selling book in history.
