The Scotsman reports that J.K. Rowling’s agents have announced she is at last considering an e-book release of her beloved Harry Potter series. If this sounds familiar, it’s because her agents said the exact same thing last May. Strangely, nothing ever came of it in the eleven months since. Sure does take her a while to make up her mind, doesn’t it?
Certainly, Rowling’s 800-page megatomes are immensely suitable for e-book release—heavier than some college textbooks, they have undoubtedly wreaked considerable havoc on the spines of young readers who had no choice but to tote them to school and back in their knapsacks.
As I mentioned in an open letter last year, such an e-release is long overdue. Indeed, Rowling’s refusal to license Harry Potter e-books out of piracy concerns has long been a source of derision to e-book partisans who note that every one of her books has been scanned and released online within hours of its midnight launch.
But it’s tempting to wonder whether Potter’s commercial e-release, if it actually happens this time, will be “too little, too late.” Her books have been unavailable as legally-purchasable e-books ever since their original publication, and by now dozens of professional-quality electronic adaptations have been circulating for years on peer-too-peer networks. Undoubtedly many people who would have shelled out for them by now on Kindle, Nook, or other devices have already satisfied their urge with those illicit copies—especially if they’ve already paid for print editions and feel that purchase price entitles them to digital copies too.
I also wonder just how those books will be priced if they do come to Amazon’s or Barnes & Noble’s virtual shelves. The printed books are long since available in paperback, but I have a sneaking suspicion that books this popular will not be quite so reasonably priced in their first e-release. Why should they when they know that literally millions of fans would probably buy them anyway?
(Found via eBookNewser.)
Back in the day she wouldn’t allow digital versions of the audio books either. When she finally did in ’05 it was exclusively through iTunes (Apple even did a HP iPod) for pretty high prices. They’re still only available through iTunes, still priced just as high (I suppose high is relative).
I fear the ebooks when/if they come may end up exclusive to someplace too and that they’ll be priced pretty high.
If they do put out ebooks they better make sure they’re error free like the darknet copies are.
Too little too late imho. I also think that her refusal to allow eBook versions has probably done more to trigger readers to visit torrent sites than any other individual writer. I am certain that if/when they do arrive, they will be grossly overpriced and trigger another surge of torrent visit. Altogether an unholy mess.
First you argue that it may be too late to offer e-books because so few people will buy Potter e-books as they’ve already got illicit copies. Then you argue that the prices will be high because millions of people will buy them.
Which is it? Not many people will buy them or millions will? Either it’s not too late to sell these as e-books, because millions will still buy them, or else it is too late, in which case they can hardly jack up the prices effectively.
There’s going to have to be some serious value-add to entice me to hand over money for this if she wants a penny more than standard rates. And I’m sure I’m not even remotely alone in this.
Especially considering how many copies of each book were printed and sit moldering in used book stores all over the world.
And in a “friendly” format, not something maxed out on DRM.
Hmm, authors and publishers should not worry about piracy, and not use DRM because anyone who pirates a copy of a book wasn’t going to buy it in the first place, right? So the industry (like the music industry) is lying if they count piracy figures as “lost sales”.
Yet at the same time, Rowling is an idiot because she didn’t release her books electronically, and due to piracy, she’s lost millions of sales.
Which is it?
@winthrop – she’s an “idiot” and lost sales because there was NO OTHER WAY to read her books in an electronic format other than “pirated” works. This is a problem of availability – if there is no legal version of things, humans will look to illegal versions.
As for whether “not many” people buy it or millions do, we’ll have to see. I should have been more clear in that talking about publisher pricing decisions, I meant that publishers would be of the belief millions of people will want to buy it.
And they may not be wrong. I don’t have any greater insight into whether past pirates will shell out than the next guy. I’m just making guesses here. 🙂 It will be interesting to see how many people do pony up for Potter if and when the e-books come out.
@MarkChan: While I agree with the “idiot” sentiment, there actually is a legal way to read her books in e-book form (in some countries): scanning the book oneself. I wouldn’t, but I do have a friend who spent the better part of a month while recovering from an injury scanning her entire personal library. Incredibly tedious, but legal.