"Harry Potter" Book 7 Release Date

No - there still is no official release date. However, there is some good new speculation on MuggleNet about some possible dates!

First, we can remove the July 7th, 2007 date from the list. To me, this date is fully discredited by the fact that it would coincide with the second anniversary of the July 7th London bombings. It can be safely assumed that it would not be a good idea for an British author to release anything on that date.

MuggleNet believes that the book will indeed be published in 2007. Since JKR is talking about finishing chapters that she planned twelve years ago, the assumption is that she is close to finishing the novel. MuggleNet offers this reasoning:

We do expect the book will be published in 2007. Allowing approximately six months for editing, marketing, promotion, printing, and everything else involved in the publication of a book, and assuming that Jo will have completed the novel by spring, our best guess is we're looking at a late summer 2007 release, or perhaps later, in the fall.

They have three basic timeframes in mind (if you believe that the release date will be meaningful in terms of the Harry Potter universe):

July 31st (20-1)
This is an interesting date, as it happens to be the birthday of both JK Rowling and Harry Potter (and Neville Longbottom, I believe). However, I discount this date, as it seems more pompous than I would expect from JKR. I doubt this date crossed her mind.

September 1st (10-1)
Another interesting date. September 1st is the first day of the school year at Hogwart's. It's appropriate, and it appeals to my appreciation of symmetry (the beginning of the end...or something like that).

October 31st/November 1st (5-1)
In my last post, the title of book 7 was related to Halloween and All Saints Day. So - wouldn't either of those days be an excellent time to release the book? Harry's parents, James and Lily, died on Halloween, so it is certainly significant within the books.

Any other date (1-1)
Now for a dose of reality. The actual release date should still be in 2007. However, the date will likely have little to do with any storyline from within the book. It will probably be driven by boring commercialism. I'd bet it gets released sometime in August, so that all of the kids can have their copies in school to tweak Laura Mallory.

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