KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Another big story overnight and overseas here in the U.S., Harry Potter mania. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" the fourth installment of the blockbuster book series, went on sale first in Britain and then across America at midnight. At more than five million copies, it's believed to be the largest first printing of any book in history. And this note. Time Warner, which owns CNN, also owns the marketing rights to Harry Potter products.

Joining us live from Washington now, Kathleen Koch. She's got more on the Harry hoopla.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. And, yes, we have the book. Here it is, all 725 pages of it. Now we are standing in a very small bookstore in northwest Washington, D.C., Treetop Toys and Books, and they have transformed the entire store for the day into Hogwart's school of witchcraft and wizardry. And for those of you out there who are muggles, who don't know much about Harry, that's the school where he learns about becoming a wizard.

Now, children throughout the nation, and Washington, D.C., of course, was no exception, were lined up at bookstores all through the night until the witching hour of midnight.Now, that's when the book was officially released here in the United States at bookstores throughout Washington. There were parties and Harry Potter games going on. They were dining on every flavor of jelly beans and chocolate frogs, which are some of Harry's favorite treats from the Harry Potter books.

Now, here at Treetop Toys and Books, the lines have just begun to form this morning. We've got only about 12, 13 children in line, and with us this morning we have Carol Segal, who is the owner of Treetop Toys and Books.

Now, I understand you have hundreds of books that have been pre- sold. Tell us about that.

CAROL SEGAL, STORE OWNER: We have. We've sold, gosh, many, many more than we ever thought we would sell and a lot of people have bought them early because they wanted to make sure that they had one reserved for them so that they could come in and pick it up today. And we thought we would have the event this morning so that children wouldn't have to be out at midnight and they could come in first thing in the morning. And we have events planned for them until one o'clock today where they're going to be making quidditch (ph) balls and snitches and nimbus 2000s and doing potions classes and making pumpkin pasties and just lots of fun activities to celebrate this book announcement.

KOCH: Now, what makes this book, this book especially, but the entire line of Harry Potter books, what makes them so special?

SEGAL: Oh, gosh. I think they appeal to children's imaginations if they're about children. For children, it expresses a lot of the feelings that children have. It's about the experiences that they have at their schools. I think they can just, it's about an orphan who finds out he's a world famous wizard and what a great fantasy that is. And it's very well written.

KOCH: Carol Segal with Treetop Toys and Books, thank you very much. And again, some quick tips on what are -- or hints on what is inside the book here. Harry Potter turns 14. He discovers girls and something to dread in this new book, one of our favorite characters will pass away.

Reporting live in Washington, I'm Kathleen Koch.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The author of the Harry Potter series has taken an interesting approach to promoting her latest book.

CNN's Richard Blystone has that part of the story, joining us, I presume, from Platform 9 3/4, right, Richard?

RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, no, Miles. Actually I'm at the Didcott Railway Center (ph) about an hour's drive from London. This is a collection of classic trains here. What you see behind me is some 1930s coaches. This is supposed to conjure up the railway station at Hogwarts. Hogwarts as, of course, everybody but muggles would know, is the academy where Harry Potter and his chums learn witchcraft and wizardry. There are already quite a few people gathered here waiting for the Hogwarts Express to arrive. That appeared first at King's Cross station in London this morning where Station 9 3/4 -- Platform 9 3/4 is located.

The author, J.K. Rowling, who has made many millions off of Harry Potter and his first three books and looks like making many more out of this fourth book, had a few words to say about the length of this book, 640 pages here. Quite a tome for youngsters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.K. ROWLING, AUTHOR: Well, I knew it was going to be longer than the third book, but it surprised even me how long it was. That's how long it needed to be to tell the story. It's as simple as that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLYSTONE: Ms. Rowling there is talking about control, really. She just wants to have control of her life and control of the books. For all her celebrity and the money, she looks like a really down to earth person. She is insisting on controlling what happens, not being dictated to by movie studios or publishers and at this stage, nobody's going to say no to her.

Richard Blystone, CNN, live at Didcott, England.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Richard.

Source: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0007/08/smn.02.html