I definitely missed the midnight premier party this time around.
Yesterday was the debut of the Harry Potter ebooks, and in truly
grand style Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and other major ebook retailers
displayed screenshots of the books on ereader devices on their home pages. Author JK Rowling teamed with
OverDrive to sell the ebooks exclusively on her personal Pottermore site, which
means that even when you find the books displayed on Amazon, you must buy them
through the external Pottermore link. While setting up a new account was a
little inconvenient when compared to the Amazon “One Click” buying experience,
the book file is sent instantaneously to your Amazon account (or Barnes &
Noble account, or wherever you store your elibrary) for your downloading
pleasure.
What does this mean for ebooks? Sales figures will be interesting
to see—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is famously the fastest-selling
book of all time, with 11 million copies distributed within 24 hours back in
2007—but it will be particularly interesting to see how many copies are sold
and how quickly considering the vast amount of print copies sold in relative
memory. If millions of people already have their print copies of Harry Potter,
are they willing to re-buy them for their ereaders? Or will these ebooks signal
yet another, new generation of Harry Potter readers, for whom the ebook will be
their first Potter experience?
Are you buying your Harry Potter ebooks?
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