Harry works magic anew at cash register

J.K. Rowling, you did it again.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” toppled sales records over the weekend, prompting Scholastic, Rowling’s U.S. publisher, to rush 2.7 million more copies into print.

The initial printing already was one for the record books – 10.8 million copies.

In announcing the additional printing, Lisa Holton of Scholastic said 6.9 million copies of the sixth volume in the blockbuster series were sold in the United States in the first 24 hours. “And we expect demand to continue as people read the book, talk about it and pass on their enthusiasm,” she said.

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth book in the series, sold 5 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in June 2003.

Harry Potter’s penchant for breaking records also rippled into online bookstores over the weekend.

“ The Borders Group reported that its 1,200 Waldenbooks and Borders stores sold more than 850,000 copies on the first day, “the highest first-day sales of any title” in the retailer’s history, according to spokeswoman Beth Bingham. In 2003, Borders sold 750,000 copies of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” on its first day.

“ By midnight Friday, according to Amazon’s Laura Porco, pre-orders had hit the 1.5 million mark globally, up from 1.3 million when the previous book was published.

“It’s a new product-release record,” said Porco. The ink is barely dry on copies of “The Half-Blood Prince, “but Amazon is wasting no time whipping up excitement” for the as-yet-unscheduled final book in the series, she said. Customers can register online for notification when it is available for pre-order.

“ “We broke another sales record,” said Barnes & Noble’s Steve Riggio. He predicted his stores would sell 1.3 million copies by Sunday evening. “That’s a 40 percent increase over the first 48 hours when the last book in the series was on sale. It’s great to see a book out-gross a Hollywood movie.”

John Mutter, editor-in-chief of “Shelf-Awareness,” an electronic newsletter for booksellers, said stores across the country reported better-than-expected sales of the new book.

“More people turned out for this one than for the last book.” Mutter said. “Many stores ran out of copies two years ago, so they upped their orders by 50 percent to 100 percent.”