When the new Harry Potter book - all 896 pages of it - lands with a thud in bookstores after midnight tonight, it will punctuate what's shaping up as a summer of blockbusters for the book industry.

Taking a page from Hollywood - and battling buying trends as dreary as the New England weather - publishers are pushing their fare with all the hoopla usually assigned to movies starring Keanu Reeves.

Thanks in part to a publicity campaign rivaling that of the "Charlie's Angels" sequel, Hillary Clinton's memoir, "Living History," became one of the fastest-selling nonfiction books ever at its debut last week, according to the publisher. In a matter of days, some 600,000 copies were sold - helping recoup the senator's $8 million advance. Up next is "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which by Saturday will have 8.5 million copies in print - enough for the entire population of New York City.

Just as the summer movie season now starts in May, publishers are often debuting potential blockbusters ahead of the industry's fall rush. The book "events" bring traffic into bookstores and, with weightier fare, are altering the perception that summer is for breezy "beach books."

"I sense more variety being bought this summer," says Pat Holt, a former book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. Among the reasons, she says, is the success of more serious books, like Alice Sebold's critically acclaimed "The Lovely Bones," a novel from the perspective of a young murder victim looking down from Heaven.

"The fact that 'The Lovely Bones' took off last summer ... gave more cachet to more challenging books," says Ms. Holt, who tracks the industry through her website. As book clubs flourish, they, too, feed the demand for "meatier" reading year-round, she says. And with blockbusters bringing people into stores, there's more foot traffic for summer options beyond mysteries and romance novels.

To peddle their wares, publishers are turning to full-page newspaper ads and monitoring when competitors launch anticipated books, taking care not to dilute the impact of their fanfare - two more echoes of Hollywood.

Summer is a perfect time to try and stand out, they say: With fewer "big" books debuting, reviewers are more likely to notice them. That's one reason "The Lovely Bones" was launched in July of 2002. It wasn't marketed as a blockbuster, but as a first novel that the publisher wanted to unveil at a time when it could shine. "The initial plan was to publish it in a month when we thought there was not a lot of competition," says Little, Brown and Company publisher Michael Pietsch. The approach paid off: By August the company had shipped about a million copies, and a year later, the book is still on hardcover bestseller lists.

No matter how much anticipated a book is, publishers fret about it getting on - and staying on - those all-powerful lists. Many launch books before autumn, hoping the slow days of summer will garner more time at the top.

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