Media, Pa.

Barnes & Noble announced that all previous records for pre-ordered books have been broken with J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” with less than 100 days to go before the July 21 publication date. Barnes & Noble has taken more than 500,000 pre-orders and expects this number to surpass one million. The book has also been ranked No. 1 on BN.com since it become available for pre-order on Feb. 1. Barnes and Noble has launched a “Waiting for Harry” book club trying to capitalize on the hype. Not to be outdone, Amazon.com announced it is looking for the “Harry-est Town” in

Books-on-demand (BOD) systems have long promised a more convenient, responsive, and cost-effective way to get titles to readers, especially when dealing with short-runs or backlists. Now one BOD system manufacturer, Powis Parker Inc., is saying its thermal binding technology is more productive, too. Powis Parker pitted its recently upgraded Fastback 15 binding system against Ibico's Ibimatic. In an in-house test, Powis Parker officials say their thermal binding equipment performed five-times faster than Ibico's punch-and-bind system for meeting perfect binding requirements. "As books get larger, it takes longer to bind them, and thus it costs more," says Kevin Parker, president of Powis Parker, in Berkeley, Calif. "For a