Great news for Harry Potter fans that have been anxiously waiting for the digital editions of the treasured series by J.K. Rowling. All seven Harry Potter titles are now available for purchase in a variety of ebook formats at Pottermore.
That’s right. Harry Potter ebooks are available at “Pottermore” and not at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Pottermore is a website that J.K. Rowling has chosen as the only place where the Harry Potter ebooks will be sold. The site is described as “a unique online experience from J.K. Rowling, built around the Harry Potter books.”. Right now the site is in beta and is essentially a store that sells digital versions of the Harry Potter series. We’re guessing from the description that many other features will be added in the future.
J.K. Rowling is demonstrating that she has an incredible amount of leverage over the major retailers with her decision to sell the Harry Potter ebooks exclusively through Pottermore. Amazon and Barnes & Noble essentially account for all ebook sales, but both of them had to setup an unusual arrangement with Rowling to offer Harry Potter ebooks to their customers.
If you search for a Harry Potter ebook at Amazon, you will get all the usual info that you would for any book. You’ll find reviews, description, publisher, etc. But if you want to buy a Harry Potter ebook, you will be redirected to Pottermore. At Pottermore, you will have to create a new account, enter your credit card and billing info, and then you can complete the purchase. Your Harry Potter ebook will then be in your Kindle Library where you can read it as you would any other ebook you purchased from Amazon. The experience is similar at Barnes & Noble.
This is absolutely amazing and clearly shows how much control J.K. Rowling has over her ebooks.
Rowling also chose to make her Harry Potter ebooks available at libraries through OverDrive. This is another impressive move since most book publishers have chosen to not to make their ebooks available at public libraries.
It will be interesting to see if other popular authors will follow J.K. Rowling’s lead or if this is just a one-time event that showcases the legendary status of the Harry Potter series.