Canadians, rest of world crazy for Harry

The hype is translating into big numbers in Canada. Vancouver-based Raincoast Books, which shares the Canadian rights with the British publisher, plans to roll out 935,000 copies at plants in Manitoba and Quebec. And that's just the first run. Victoria retailers are readying to ride the next wave in the literary phenomenon that to date has sold 192 million copies around the globe.

This release is clouded with so much secrecy -- and hyped by leaked tales of stolen chapters and ransomed copies -- that CNN should cover it live just as it did the Iraq war.

For starters, it's not just the book retailers who sign what Tanner Books' Cliff McNeil-Smith describes as "a page-and-a half embargo agreement." That agreement translates into no-peeking at the hermetically-sealed and black-plastic wrapped packages of Harry V until 12:01 a.m. on June 21. Surely, none would. They all know what happened to the Toronto retailer who broke the last embargo, and tried an end-run around Raincoast when denied more books.

"We closed her account," says Raincoast president Allan MacDougall, stopping off at his Vancouver office between book fairs in Los Angeles and Toronto. He doesn't mean just the Harry books but all Raincoast titles. The company's prime business is as distributor for other publishers.

MacDougall estimates that 1,000 people have signed confidentiality agreements in Canada. Everyone from his own staff to those at the printing and trucking companies and stores. There's nothing like secrecy coupled with delayed literary gratification to stoke the demand for Harry V.

What's hard to determine is whether MacDougall has read it. He hints he has -- but not in the book form. "What am I going to say?" he teases when pushed for plot details. "It's the best book ever."