Scholastic recently announced that they’ve ordered a 12-million copy first printing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—the seventh and final volume of the series—which is scheduled to go on sale on 21 July. This record number of copies for the first printing tops the previous record—10.8 million copies—which was set by the sixth title in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
And in what may be the most useless expenditure of marketing dollars in recent memory, Scholastic is planning a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign around the theme of “There Will Soon Be 7.” The campaign kicks off on 17 April with several online initiatives (the Harry Potter home page is www.scholastic.com/harrypotter. The Knight bus tour will kick off in New York City on 2 June, and visit 40 libraries in 10 cities across the country. Scholastic will be filming fans thoughts on the series at each stop, and posting the clips on the web. And closer to release date, Scholastic will distribute temporary tattoos through bookstores.