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Harry Potter eBooks finally available via Pottermore, can be read on most e-readers

Summary: After a long delay, the Harry Potter series is finally available in eBook form via Pottermore.

Ricardo Bilton

By for The ToyBox |

Harry Potter - meet 2012.

The Harry Potter series is finally hitting e-readers via Pottermore, J.K. Rowling's sole sanctioned eBook outlet.

The books will be available in both the EPUB and Kindle formats, making them compatible with a very large number of devices.  (Notably, Apple's iBookStore is not included in the list of supported partners, at least not yet.)

The first three books of the series will run for $7.99, while the last four, larger tomes, will cost $9.99. Purchased one at a time, the entire series will run you $64, though Pottermore also offers The Complete eBook Collection, which is a bit cheaper at $57. Also available are audio versions of the novels, which run for $29 and $44.

Buying the eBooks is probably a bit more complicated than most digital readers are used to. It requires, first, the creation of a Pottermore account, which will handle the downloading and management of the files. Owners are able to copy the files to up to eight devices.

Right now the books are only available in English, though French, German, Italian, and Spanish versions are on the way as well.

What's particularly interesting about the news is this: Gone from Pottermore is any mention of Google Checkout, which, was the preferred third part payment platform for the site last year.

Here's what Pottermore has to say about payment:

We accept MasterCard, Visa, Carte Bleue, JCB (£ GBP at present), Maestro and Solo credit and debit cards at the Pottermore Shop. We do not accept cheque or any other kind of payment at this time, although we will add additional payment options in the future.

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5 comments
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  • Sheesh, Rowling

    putting your fans through a torturous purchase process just so you can glean an additional 30% to add to your billions already in the bank? Particularly annoying considering that you only likely got 30% royalty on your print sales.
    baggins_z
    Reply Vote

    • Well done, Ms. Rowling

      Hopefully this will lead to more publishers standing up to Apple and their utterly ridiculous demands. I think it is great that she refuses to hand over 30% to Apple, and hope to see a lot more artists follow suit.
      john-whorfin
      Reply Vote

    • Rowling's site is by far the better deal

      Yes it's a little onerous to set up a new account and buy the ebooks vs. one-clicking it from Amazon. However, you get 8 downloads that can be pushed to all the major ebook makers or downloaded directly, thus you are no longer tied to one makers device. It would be nice to see more publishers do this but I am afraid very few authors have the pull to bring customers directly to them like Rowling does.

      P.S. whatever she made of regular book is entirely irrelevant, it is her lifes work and she is entitled to make as much as people will pay her for it.
      oncall
      Reply Vote

  • Nothing new here.

    The Harry Potter book series have been posted in news groups months ago in epub format and Mobi.
    Semicrazee
    Reply Vote

    • piracy is not new

      These are legal copies. Not available through iTunes, so it may be the first big step in telling Apple that they cannot have 30% just for distribution. THAT is new
      john-whorfin
      Reply Vote
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