[LINK] J.K. Rowling's Pottermore reveal: Harry Potter e-books and more

[Kim Holburn]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/jk-rowlings-pottermore-reveal-harry-potter-e-books-and-more.ars

> Harry Potter fans, hold on to your broomsticks: After a week of frenzied speculation, J.K. Rowling has revealed that she will release the long-awaited e-books of her mind-bogglingly popular fantasy series through her own e-commerce store and interactive online experience, Pottermore.
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> Crucially, Rowling will sell the e-books through a proprietary platform, she revealed at a press conference this morning in the Victoria & Albert museum in London. Because of a shrewd arrangement with her publishers Bloomsbury and Scholastic (or possibly just a short-sighted one on the publishers’ side), Rowling retains the digital rights to the seven Harry Potter novels. Bloomsbury and Scholastic still have control of print publishing rights.
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> Until recently, reports have been speculating that the rights to sell the e-books would be worth as much as $160 million. By retaining the rights and selling them through her own platform, Rowling stands to make much more. She is not, however, completely turning her back on the hands that fed her—her publishers around the world will get a cut of e-book sales and will no doubt benefit from the “halo effect” of an uplift in print sales.
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> In a further bold move, Rowling has opted to keep the e-books DRM-free, meaning that they are not locked into one device or platform. She is instead opting for digital watermarking that links the identity of the purchaser to the copy of the e-book. This doesn’t prevent copyright theft but does ensure that any copies will be traceable to a particular user. This is similar to how iTunes is DRM-free, but embeds user account information within each file purchased.
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> In addition to being an e-book store for the seven fantasy novels, Pottermore is also an online immersive experience for which Rowling has written extensive new material (more than 18,000 new words so far) about characters, places and objects in the series. So even if you don’t buy the e-books you can still enjoy the additional content with a printed book or on its own.




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Kim Holburn
The Pinchgut Press
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