On July 25, an incident similar to the early release of the seventh Harry Potter book occurred with shipments of Eclipse. Barnes & Noble Booksellers accidentally shipped advance copies of Eclipse to some of the customers who had pre-ordered. Barnes & Noble said that it was a computer error, as their entire online store is computerized.
To prevent any spoilers from popping up online, many fansite forums for the Twilight series were shut down, such as the Twilight Lexicon. Stephenie Meyer also locked her MySpace comments in an attempt to avoid spoilers. In an open letter to the fansite the Twilight Lexicon, Stephenie Meyer pleaded with these "lucky readers" to please keep the ending to themselves until the rest of the Twilight fans had the chance to read and enjoy Eclipse as well.
An early book release also occurred with Stephenie Meyer's release of the Eclipse special edition, which included the first chapter and cover art of the subsequent novel Breaking Dawn. The special edition was to hit store shelves on May 31, 2008, but multiple copies were released up to a whole week early. Meyer knew that some copies had been leaked, and released the following quote:
"There is a lot of speculation on the internet about possible covers, content and text of Breaking Dawn. I hope everybody knows that you shouldn't believe everything you see on the internet. The only way you will know what is real is when you have the book in your hands. Until then, people should really take everything they see with a grain of salt."[11]
Subject: Early release 
Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:57 am
