Potter publisher investigates misbound copies

The full extent of a printing error in some copies of the new Harry Potter blockbuster is not yet known, the New Zealand publisher says.

About 10,000 copies of the first Australasian print run of the new Harry Potter book were possibly faulty, it was reported yesterday.

However, a spokeswoman for the publishing company told NZPA today that, of the more than 100,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix currently in New Zealand, few faulty ones had been found so far.

"We're still investigating but I don't think there will be anything like 10,000 misbound copies," Allen and Unwin New Zealand manager Sandy Weir said.

"I think most kids have almost finished the book by now and we would've heard if there had been widespread problems.

"It was a nice quiet weekend for all the parents of New Zealand -- I saw little kids sitting on the street at 11.30pm reading, and for a publisher, it doesn't get better than that!"

The error sees Chapter 29 of the 870-page book replaced by Chapter 9.

Any incomplete books found by retailers or customers would be replaced free-of-charge, Ms Weir said.

She said she was not able to say how much replacing the books would cost the company, but such occurrences were "not unusual".

"It doesn't happen every day, but pages do occasionally get bound upside down or missed out.

"Usually these things get picked up before books leave the printers, but some do slip through."

The Warehouse book buyer Toni Krauts said the company was notified about the glitch two days ago, and directed local stores to check all their copies.

"Out of the thousands we ordered, we found just 13, so we're pretty happy."

The company was fairly confident no faulty copies had been sold, she said.

Paper Plus national business manager Tony Moores said he first heard about the potential problem through the media this morning.

"This sort of thing is not uncommon and I'm sure it won't be a problem.

"Quality control checks are carried out, but with a run of this size, it's almost inevitable that sometimes misprints leak out."

- NZPA