Scholastic announced this morning that it has ordered a 12-million copy first printing for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is scheduled to go on sale July 21 (but who’s counting?). That tops the 10.8-million first printing Scholastic did for the last Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

And on a slightly more modest scale (remove a few noughts from the print run figure), The Silver Swan hits the shops next month. Advances have arrived, apparently, although they haven’t caught up with me yet as I’m in the middle of moving house.

But that’s another story.