Scholastic has announced that the US first printing of the seventh and last "Harry Potter" book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be twelve million. This is an increase over the last book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which had a comparatively paltry first printing of 10.8 million.

Deathly Hallows will publish July 21st, and Scholastic has planned a multi-million-dollar publicity campaign, so that even hermits who live under rocks will not be able to avoid knowing about the new book.

[fuller story in The Washington Post]