It’s been less than 12 hours since the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and publication is more than 200 days away (see countdown above), and the book is already the #1 Bestseller at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Thanks Jutti! (Click below for screencaps, provided by Jutti.) Amazon.com Barnes and Noble

Earlier today, a Dutch fan site e-mailed to say that Scholastic told them that Half-Blood Prince was 38 chapters long; we’ve just had word from a Scholastic rep that the e-mail was “an error,” and that “the book is just beginning the editing process and we will announce number of chapters later.”

We’ve also received confirmation from Bloomsbury that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is “a bit shorter” than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (MuggleNet reported this this morning.)

Scholastic’s Press Release confirms that the US price of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be $29.99, and that Mary Grand Pre will design her sixth straight HP cover. (There’s also a placeholder purple cover here, but it’s not very exciting.)

It’s official! July 16, 2005, will bring the sixth book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The news comes from Bloomsbury, JKR’s British publishers, this morning: “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry …read more!

Newspapers and wire services all over are reporting the happy HBP News (even I wrote a story about it for tomorrow’s edition of my newspaper). The Associated Press story so far appears in: Newsday ABC News San Francisco Chronicle Yahoo! Scholsatic is noted in the article as saying the release date will apparate Tuesday morning. …read more!

All right, we couldn’t wait for you all to break into JKR’s study. Jo Rowling has announced on her site that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is FINISHED, and we should hear a release date from her publishers in the next 24 hours. Check back here for updates. Here’s what JKR says about the …read more!

The door is open again on JKRowling.com. Click below to find out what you have to do to open it, and more about what’s inside. Thanks speedy Emily! There is an EXCELLENT message waiting inside but we’re not putting it on the main page for a few more hours yet! Click the Christmas tree in …read more!

Jo Rowling speaks about being called a Satanist by people who want to get her books banned here: “I ask myself first of all how they actually read the books. Can they read? And if they read the books I am truly mystified that they could say that about them.” Also on the video is …read more!

The Floo Network is proud to present a very important addition! When Floo was formed, we set out to make it easy for a fan to find any info he or she needed. A large part of that goal was the incorporation of Quick Quotes, the largest archive of J.K. Rowling interviews on the Web. …read more!