The global phenomenon, which has made its formerly destitute author JK Rowling into the world's richest woman, has been the best news for the world's book printers, so today marks a tearful farewell for the commercial muggles.

However Australia's book printers seem to have missed out this time around, with reports that the million tomes bound for this nation's bookshops have been printed in ye olde England. In an effort to increase the hype surrounding the book's launch the Australian publisher Unwin & Allen was keeping mum about the source and number of books, only saying that the print run will be bigger than last time.

Along with the sheer volume of books the size has also been welcomed by book printers, with the latest more than 700 pages. JK Rowling has gone all out to present this book as green, using sustainable paper with FSC and chain of custody.

JK Rowling herself will experience another financial bonanza, she is already the world's richest woman by some distance, and she is expected to earn a further US$250m today alone, with a similar sum coming in over the next few months..

Booksellers on the other hand will not do so well, despite the demand, due to the intense competition, and the use of the book and a loss leader by major retailers. K Mart for instance sells the book for cost, while Big W loses $2 on each copy it sells. As a result booksellers such as Dymocks can only charge a $2 margin on the tome.

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