It is being reported that J.K. Rowling’s latest installment Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has created record of sorts for the total number of online presales orders placed at Amazon.com- 2,000,516 to be precise while more than 20 million copies offline copies are being printed at secret locations. It is also being reported that worldwide, most crazy, unusual, unseen & unheard of security measures are being taken to ensure that the secret about the death of two main characters in the story are not revealed till the launch of the book on 21st of July.

Here are some interesting highlights of the operations of this closely guarded secret from the world around:

-More than 10 Million Pounds (20 million $) has been spent on security reports the UK Telegraph

-When the finished manuscript was taken by hand from London to New York, the lawyer for the American publisher, Scholastic, sat on it during the flight.

-So far, only Rowling and 20 others - illustrators, editors and continuity experts - know the book’s ending, reports the EarthTimes

-Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of Harry Potter series, has refused to disclose the manufacturing locations where the book is being printed. But according to Publisher Weekly, reliable sources have identified one of the locations as being Crawfordsville, Ind, 50 miles west of Indianapolis.

-Midnight trains have lately been busy on the rarely used track to Donnelley’s printing facilities. Usually there’s only about three cars on the train at night, but recently there’s been about six, seven carts a night going through every 15 to 20 minutes, reports WSTM.

-Factory workers have been threatened to be sacked if any details are leaked to the media

-FPJ Print Edition reports that some employees had to work in near darkness to prevent them from reading the books

-The delivery operation with military like precision took six months to plan. It will require 180 extra trucks, and an additional train service by Royal Mail to distribute the books from retailers’ warehouses to 1,400 delivery offices across the UK on Friday evening and the early hours of Saturday morning, reports the Guardian.

-The delivery trucks are fitted with satellite tracking systems GPS) costing up to £1,000 each, which will reveal whether any of the vehicles deviates from its intended route.

-Books have been wrapped in black cellophane and kept in a secured storage area

-The books are on sealed pallets fitted with alarms to prevent tampering.

-At one of the world’s biggest booksellers, Barnes and Noble in America, the books are being kept in padlocked trucks.

-Every bookseller has to sign an “amazingly thick” legal document, the kinds of which have been unheard of in the literary world, reports The Australian Age where some of the most bizarre rules include requiring written consent from Rowling’s literary agent to read aloud from the book. Quizzes, riddles and crosswords are strictly banned.

-Signatories to the agreement are told that the cartons must be kept “in a secure area under lock and key to which there is no access other than by you personally or your management”. The boxes cannot be visible to the public until 30 minutes before sale time.

-A litigation specialist has been posted by Bloomsbury 24 hours a day, seven days a week to deal with any breaches of the agreement, reports eFluxMedia

Update:TorrentFreak reports that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been leaked to BitTorrent