Jk Rowling’s new book for adults, The Casual Vacancy went on sale yesterday (September 27, 2012). Rowling and her publishers may not have managed to whip up the same degree of hysteria that was achieved with the release of a new Harry Potter book but still, British readers still queued up outside bookstores as crates of the book were wheeled out ceremoniously at 8am.

So far, detail of The Casual Vacancy have been kept under wraps; review copies were not sent out and instead, an air of mystery surrounded Rowling’s new venture. Where children would dress up as their favourite Harry Potter characters to stand in line waiting for a first glimpse of the book, such behaviour was hardly appropriate here. Regardless of the lack of familiarity with the novel’s contents, JK Rowling is still pretty much guaranteed to land herself a slot in the bestsellers lists in the UK, the US and elsewhere – such is the potency of her reputation as a compelling author of fiction.

Whilst few are under any illusion that The Casual Vacancy will match the sales figures of the Harry Potter novels, there is still a quiet confidence that sales figures for the book will still sky-rocket. According to the Vancouver Sun, William Hill have already put “2/1 odds on it outselling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which shifted 2.6 million copies in Britain on its first day.” The publication of this debut adult novel from Rowling has attracted an unprecedented degree of media coverage – which can’t harm the sales – and the world’s press will now be on tenterhooks for those early sales result.