The Bookseller.com

4th July 2009

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Bloomsbury confident over press embargo

19.07.07 Katherine Rushton

Bloomsbury is confident that the UK press will not run reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before the book launches at midnight on Friday, even after early reviews appeared in the US press.

Spokesman Minna Fry said: "At the moment we're quite confident that the UK press is eminently more successful, and have a much better sense of fun. Everyone wants to hold it; no-one wants to find out what happens [before the launch]... We're very disappointed with what's going on, but we're not panicking."

Both the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun in the US ran reviews of the book in today's edition, after they got their hands on copies that were shipped early by accident. Neither newspaper revealed the ending of the book.

The reviews are both available online, but Fry said they did not pose a problem in the UK. "Obviously the New York Times has got hold of an illegal copy, but whilst people are just posting links to reviews, they can opt out with their fingers." She added that Bloomsbury was "not the teeniest, weeniest bit" worried that the leaks would impact sales.

She also played down postings on the web, claiming to be photographs of the last pages of the book, saying no one could say whether they were genuine.

In a statement Scholastic confirmed that about 1,200 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had been erroneously mailed early to readers by the distributor, Levy Home Entertainment, and DeepDiscount.com, a customer of the distributor. Scholastic said it was taking "immediate" legal action, and appealed to anyone who received the book early not to open it.

Katherine Rushton harry potter Bloomsbury children's