JK Rowling and her publisher Bloomsbury are taking media control to new levels for the release of the latest Harry Potter book next month by not granting a single interview to an established UK journalist.
Instead the publisher, which again has threatened newspapers with legal action if they reveal details of the plot before the July 16 publication date, is bypassing the mainstream media and going straight to millions of fans to market Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
JK Rowling is giving "cub reporters" aged between eight and 16 to chance to ask her questions at a special press conference coinciding with the book's worldwide release.
The cub reporters will be chosen by newspaper competitions in Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand and will travel to Edinburgh Castle to gather at midnight on July 15 to hear JK Rowling read excerpts from the book.
"The cub reporters will meet JK Rowling who will give them each a signed copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," said a posting on the author's website.
"The cub reporters will then have the weekend to read the book in a specially-created reading room at Edinburgh Castle before attending the children's press conference on Sunday 17th July to question JK Rowling in person."
Part of the weekend will be televised, but Bloomsbury has not announced further details.
Advertising will be limited to 2,000 posters on the sides of buses, but bookshops can ask Bloomsbury for Harry Potter party packs and hold celebration parties at midnight on July 15.
The US publisher Scholastic has coaxed Rowling to agree to a single US press interview and a single TV interview while she is at Edinburgh Castle, but they will not appear until after the publication date.
Bloomsbury ran a competition to find its cub reporter by asking children to use 50 words complete the sentence: "I'm the biggest fan of the Harry Potter books because...", while newspapers, bookshops and libraries in the UK and the Irish Republic fashioned the giveaway into a essay-writing competition.
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