Joan Rowling will sell electronic versions of books about Harry Potter

Before writing this topic, I searched for what I wrote about Joan Rowling on Habr, and found a topic four years ago with the indicative name of " Rowling: E-books about Harry Potter? Out of the question! ". Well, time goes by, everything changes.

Today at a press conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Joan Rowling announced that she will release electronic versions of her Harry Potter books through her online store on the new Pottermore website .

Despite the fact that the rights to print a series of novels belong to Bloomsbury and Scholastic, the rights to electronic versions belong to Joan Rowling herself. Until recently, it was rumored that rights to sell e-books would cost at least £ 100 million (about $ 160 million). Selling books through its own platform, Rowling, of course, will earn a lot more. Nevertheless, its publishers around the world will receive a share of sales and, due to the halo effect, will also earn on the rise in print sales.

Books will not be tied to one device or platform, that is, they will be DRM-free. Rowling opted for digital watermarks that connect the buyer with a copy of the e-book. This does not prevent copyright infringement, but allows you to track any copy to a specific user. This is similar to how iTunes is DRM-free, but embeds user information in each purchased file.

In addition to an e-bookstore for seven novels, Pottermore will also have additional materials on characters, places and objects from the Potter universe. So even if you don’t buy e-books, you can enjoy additional content.

“For me, this is such a great way to give something to Harry Potter fans who have made books incredibly successful,” says Rowling. “I still get a phenomenal amount of letters, drawings and stories from fans. This is a way for Harry Potter to live in an environment that did not exist when I started writing books. ”

The Pottermore website was developed by digital creative agency TH_NK (in close partnership with Rowling) and sponsored by Sony. Pottermore will feature illustrations and interactive game elements. When you sign up, you will be prompted to select a magic username, and then go to various parts of the book.

Each chapter will have interactive “moments.” The first book will have 44 such moments. One of them will be Diagon Alley, where you can enter the Gringotts Bank and pick up 175 galleons. Then you can use them to buy items from the list in different shops.

On the way to Hogwarts, you can explore the train carriage, find digital trinkets there, such as magic beans and various spell cards that can be put in your personal suitcase for later use. Access to the suitcase will be available on the profile page, which will indicate your friends, a digital wallet, all your digital items and information about your wand.

At Hogwarts, you will meet with the Sorting Hat. Based on a series of questions with answer options, you will be identified in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

After determining to your faculty, you can take part in magical duels with fellow students or successfully mix potions to win points for the faculty. This part will be a bit like a multiplayer game - users will unite in leagues to compete with each other.

Pottermore beta opens July 31 (Harry's birthday) for millions of fans who need to find the Magic Pen. They will be able to leave their comments and criticism for the final revision of the site before its full opening on October 1. Then the Pottermore store will open, where you can buy e-books and audio books in different languages. The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, appears in early 2012, and other books will follow.

The fact that the best-selling author of the past decade has been publicly entering the digital space is likely to be an important factor in the development of the e-book industry. Pottermore's interactive elements will inspire other authors and creative teams to think outside the realm of the printed page when it comes to e-books.

[ via Wired]