Saturday, December 30, 2006

Preparing for Potter

The release date hasn't even been announced, but the Globe and Mail reports that the Royal Mail Service is already making preparations for the arrival of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.* "More than 500,000 advance order copies of the sixth adventure, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were delivered on July 16, 2005, in an operation that required some 150 additional trucks ferrying books to around 1,400 delivery offices across Britain. While the number represents only a fraction of the 80 million items the Royal Mail delivers daily, the security - and secrecy - surrounding the work mean the books have to spend as little time as possible on warehouse floors, complicating their distribution."

Here's a wowser: Deathly Hallows is already the number one book at amazon.co.uk, based solely on pre-orders (I suppose that's got nothing to do with the fact that "reserve your copy now" is plastered right across the main page ...).

(h/t Joyce at Bibliophile Bullpen).

* Yes, we now know the title. Exactly what definition Rowling's going for with "hallows" seems to be the big question on everybody's mind - well, after when the book's going to appear, that is.