About the Book

Author: JK Rowling
Illustrators: Mary GrandPre (US), Cliff Wright (UK)
UK Edition Statistics: 22 chapters, 317 pages, 107,253 words
US Edition Statistics: 22 chapters, 435 pages, 107,253 words
Initial Print Runs: 10,000 copies (UK); 500,000 copies (US)

The third book in the saga of seven, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is commonly regarded as the fan favorite. JK Rowling began writing it the day after she completed the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by which point the first had gained quite a large fan base. By August of 1999, soon after the third book's release in the UK and a month before its release in the US, five million copies of the books were already in print.

The book's UK release was slightly delayed to ensure that kids wouldn't skip school to read the book. By this point, the book series was already being labeled a phenomenon, but not a large enough one to merit midnight releases - at least not in Britain. It was released at 3:45 PM on Thursday, July 8, 1999 and it sold 68,159 copies in its first two days.

American fans were even more enthusiastic about the series even faster than the Brits, and when Prisoner of Azkaban was released on September 8, 1999, many bookstores opened for business at midnight. An Atlanta bookstore manager reported selling more copies of the third Harry Potter book from 12 AM to 3 AM on its release date than Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full (a popular author at the time) on its entire first day of publication. Similar extremely high sales across the country birthed the phrase, "Harry Potter - the hottest book ever." Before September 8th, US fans pre-ordered 61,206 copies of the book on Amazon.com. 50,000 additional copies were sold on the eighth in bookstores around the country.

By October 1999, more than 17 million copies of the Harry Potter books were in print in 25 languages. Rowling toured America for three weeks to promote Prisoner of Azkaban in October 1999 to promote, visiting Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, New York, and other states. During this tour, she did numerous book signings, interviews, and appeared on the "Today" show and the Rosie O'Donnell Show. She also took a trip to see The Lion King on Broadway. When in Boston, she said, "I am still stunned that I went literally from being an unknown author on the bread line to having my books at the top of the charts."

Rowling was a multimillionaire by this point, a remarkable achievement. Bloomsbury, the UK publisher of the books, also saw a dramatic increase in profit. Their share price tripled during 1999 and their gross profits rose by 34% in that time frame as well - both largely due to Harry Potter.