However for a couple of Australian book printers the champagne corks will have already popped, as they receive their orders for what is certain be the biggest book printing job in the nation’s history.
The previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix was printed by the muggles at Griffin Press and McPherson’s, with an initial print run of 750,000, the final numbers topping one million copies. These figures broke all records for Australian book publishing, with the printers’ joy being compounded by author JK Rowling’s fondness for War & Peace size books, the Order of Phoenix was a 768pp tome.

Judging by print runs ordered in other countries the print job here for the new book will be significantly higher than last time. In the US initial print run for the new book is set at an incredible 10.8 million copies, This is by far the biggest initial print run for a book in the US, dwarfing the previous record holder, which was last year’s Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, that weighed in with a six million initial print run, a figure which smashed all previous records. Five million copies were sold within the first 24 hours.

The new book will set the nation’s children into a frenzy heading for July 16, launch date for the latest book. A huge promotional campaign will lead up to the launch, culminating in booksellers again opening their stores at midnight on launch date.
JK Rowling earned $200m on June 21 alone last year, the day the previous book was released, and is now the world’s richest woman. She is credited with galvanising a generation of children back into the joys of reading, and bringing smiles to book printers around the world.

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