Revealing book title not a mistake -- Rowling

J.K. Rowling admitted that revealing the title of her next Harry Potter book to a child last week was not planned, but it wasn't a mistake either

TORONTO, Ontario (Reuters) -- J.K. Rowling, author of the extraordinarily popular Harry Potter children's books said on Monday that revealing the title of her next book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," to a child in New York last week was not a mistake.

"I didn't expect to do it now at all, but I did say after "Goblet of Fire" that I wouldn't keep it a secret," said Rowling, who was in Toronto for the International Festival of Authors.

Rowling added that she could not handle the pressure of keeping such a big secret and she did not want people to sift through her garbage.

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"I didn't have plans to say it just now. I thought I would at some point but then there was this really, really cute little boy who asked and I thought, oh, he'd look so happy if I told him," she said.

The British-born, single mother who wrote the first Harry Potter novel because she could not afford to heat her apartment said she "only decided a couple of weeks ago what the title was going to be."

Other details of the book were scant, although Rowling did say at a press conference on Sunday that the fifth Harry Potter book should be shorter than number four.

Rowling is in Toronto as part of the annual authors festival. She will read at the city's 50,000-seat SkyDome stadium on Tuesday with Canadian authors Kenneth Oppel and Tim Wynne-Jones. The event may prove to be Rowling's largest event to date, with the number of ticket sold well into five figures.

The event could herald Rowling's entry into the Guinness Book of Records for the largest paid audience for an author's reading.

Rowling expressed her fear of speaking in front of such a large crowd, insisting she's "not the Rolling Stones."

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