The Bookseller has confirmed this in a special newsflash email this morning. The details were announced in a press conference today. The ebooks will be released in October and be available only on the Pottermore website and will be in a variety of formats, including that for the Kindle.
According to a further report in The Bookseller:
J K Rowling has confirmed that she will release paid-for e-book versions of her incredibly successful Harry Potter books from her new website Pottermore “in partnership with J K Rowling’s publishers worldwide”. The news was unveiled via YouTube and at a press conference held today (23rd June). Her UK publisher Bloomsbury will receive a share of the revenues, which put out a Stock Exchange announcement to make clear the revenue was already in its forecasts.
The e-books will be released in October, and will be available only on the Pottermore website, but will be compatible across a range of devices, including Amazon’s Kindle. The facility is being provided by the e-book vendor OverDrive, which also serves the Waterstone’s and W H Smith’s e-book stores, as well as being a major player in the library e-book lending market. …
OverDrive’s involvement was revealed today at the UK press conference by Pottermore c.e.o Rod Henwood. Henwood said: “Overdrive are providing the platform for the e-books.” Speaking to The Bookseller about whether the physical books will also feature on the site’s shop, Henwood said: “[The physical publishers] are partners in this, you will see their presence prominent in the shop when it is launched, and they are involved in marketing the site. It is a very collaborative project, all contributing to the marketing and the activity. Their interests are aligned with ours.” He added: “We won’t sell physical books directly, certainly not on the site, but we will be providing links to publishers websites and if they sell the [physical] books there, people can obviously buy them.”
Rowling talked about going into the digital format for the first time, and said: “It is my view that you can’t hold back progress. I love printed paper . . . This year for the first time I have downloaded e-books and it’s miraculous . . . I feel good about bringing it into this world.” She added that she did come up with the name “Pottermore”.
More in the article. Bloomsbury, Rowling’s publisher, does not own the digital rights, but note the above statement that it will receive a share of the revenues from the site.
I wonder if they will release the UK or US version, or both? Similarly, will the various other language translations of the books be made available as ebooks?
The sales data from this ebook relase will be very interesting, as pirate versions of the books have been widely available over the net. How many people will be willing to buy the official versions. Unfortunately, that sort of data will probably never be released.
Associated Press reports his resting place is
now at Commonwealth Cemetery in the town of Ramle in Israel,
which has become very popular for domestic travelers to visit.
Among some of the choice responses:. HP7 or, Harry Potter 7
or HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS slammed the
box office this weekend.