Barnes & Noble Set to Shatter All Sales Records with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Business Editors

NEW YORK, NY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 2003

Hundreds of Thousands of Pre-Orders

Most Barnes & Noble Stores to Stay Open

Past Midnight Tonight

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, and Barnes & Noble.com (NASDAQ: BNBN) (www.bn.com) expect Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to break all previous records for first day and first week sales for any book. Barnes & Noble has already received hundreds of thousand of pre-orders and predicts the latest work from J. K. Rowling will sell more than one million copies by the end of its first week on sale.

Many Barnes & Noble stores nationwide are being transformed into the magical world of Harry Potter, staying open past midnight to accommodate fans and planning special "Midnight Magic" parties complete with costumes and wizardry of all kinds. Tens of thousands of children and adults are expected to be on hand as the clock strikes midnight to ensure that they get their copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as soon as possible.

Consumers who place their order at Barnes & Noble.com by 11:00 a.m. ET today will receive their book on Saturday.

"The level of excitement for this book surpasses any other single bookselling event in the history of Barnes & Noble," said Steve Riggio, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. "J. K. Rowling proves that reading can still be magical for millions of people of all ages, especially young children. I believe the lasting effects of the Harry Potter books will be a growing interest in reading for this and future generations."

The Barnes & Noble's Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix Sweepstakes has already received more than 200,000 entries. Customers can pick up a special decoder card at any Barnes & Noble store and log on to Barnes & Noble's special sweepstakes Web site, www.harrypottersweeps.com, to win hundreds of prizes. The grand prize is an all-expenses-paid trip for four to Harry Potter's England. No purchase is necessary. Four decoder cards make up the collector set, and the sweepstakes winner will be announced in August.

A special edition of Barnes & Noble's popular gift card features artwork from the latest Harry Potter book cover. Gift cards are available in any denomination from $5 on up and are redeemable at any Barnes & Noble store and online at Barnes & Noble.com.

A sampling of weekend festivities around the country include:

-- The "Midnight Magic" party at the Barnes & Noble in the Mall of

America in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will feature crafts (making

Golden Snitches, wands and capes), face painting, and trivia,

costume and jellybean contests.

-- The Sacramento, California, Barnes & Noble Friday night party

will include Quidditch games and potion demonstrations. Those who

attend can have their photos taken with Hagrid and Harry. There

will also be a reading of the final chapters of the previous

Rowling book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

-- The cauldron will bubble at the party at the Lincoln Center 

Barnes & Noble in New York City. Hagrid has promised to attend,

and the store will have events all night long, including a reading

by Molly Ringwald, a wizard magic show, a Sheeza Witch magic show,

photos, and a raffle. On Saturday afternoon, June 21, Jim Dale,

the actor who has recorded the audiotapes for this and the other

Potter books, will read from Harry Potter and the Order of the

Phoenix.

-- A reading from the new book, Harry Potter and the Order of the

Phoenix will begin at 12:01 on Saturday morning, June 21, at a

Barnes & Noble in Atlanta, Georgia.

-- A 13-year-old magician, Kyle Scheel will put on a magic show at

Barnes & Noble stores in Kansas City.

Information on "Midnight Magic" parties and other special Harry Potter events at your nearest Barnes & Noble store can be found on the store locator link on www.bn.com and on Barnes & Noble's corporate site, www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the world's largest bookseller, operating 630 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 49 states. It also operates 245 B. Dalton Bookseller stores, primarily in regional shopping malls. The company offers titles from more than 50,000 publisher imprints, including thousands of small, independent publishers and university presses. It conducts its e-commerce business through Barnes & Noble.com (NASDAQ: BNBN) (http://www.bn.com) in which it owns an approximate 38 percent interest.

Barnes & Noble also has approximately a 60 percent interest in GameStop (NYSE: GME), the nation's largest video-game and entertainment-software specialty retailer with 1,309 stores.

General financial information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/financials.

About Barnes & Noble.com

Barnes & Noble.com is a leading Internet-based retailer of books, music, DVD/video and online courses. Since opening its online store (www.bn.com) in March 1997, Barnes & Noble.com has attracted more than 14.4 million customers in 230 countries. Barnes & Noble.com's bookstore includes the largest in-stock selection of in-print book titles with access to approximately one million titles for immediate delivery, supplemented by more than 30 million listings from its nationwide network of out-of-print, rare and used book dealers. Barnes & Noble.com offers its customers fast delivery, easy and secure ordering, and rich editorial content.