The long-awaited fifth book in the Harry Potter series has become an instant best-seller less than 24 hours after the June publication date was announced, online book stores said on Thursday.
Amazon.com said it took only two hours after becoming available for pre-order for "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" to reach the top-selling spot.
Amazon.com's British arm, Amazon.co.uk, said more than 30,000 customers had placed orders in 24 hours for author J.K. Rowling's latest tale of the boy wizard and his adventures.
Barnes and Noble.com said orders had been pouring in since the announcement on Wednesday by Rowling's publishers that the 255,000 word book would be published on June 21.
Harry Potter fans have had to wait three years for "Order of the Phoenix," which was delayed by Rowling's marriage and her subsequent pregnancy.
Amazon.com declined to release pre-order figures for "Order of the Phoenix" but said that day one figures were 100 times those for the first day of pre-orders for the last book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", which was published in July 2000.
"Goblet of Fire" was Amazon.com's largest book pre-order in history with more than 400,000 advance orders worldwide.
"Our customers are loyal and rabid Harry Potter fans, and we are delighted to offer them the simplest, most convenient way to reserve their copies immediately," said Amazon.com's book division vice-president Steve Kessel.
Barnes and Noble, the world's largest book seller, said that its stores across the United States would remain open late on Friday night, June 20, and start selling the book at midnight. Special in-store events and parties are also being planned.
The first four Harry Potter books are still on best-seller lists around the world and movie versions of the first two books have grossed more than $1.7 billion.
(China Daily January 17, 2003)
