Voldemort was second division as an adversary; Amazon was Harry Potter’s most implacable foe. But the bespectacled wizard has seen off the virtual giant. The major books story this week is the arrival of official eBook editions of the Harry Potter novels. But these books are not for sale through Amazon’s e-commerce system (or Barnes and Noble’s and Waterstones’). Click on any Amazon link to the Potter eBooks and this message will appear:
‘Harry Potter Kindle books can be purchased at JK Rowling’s Pottermore Shop, a third-party site. Clicking on “Buy at Pottermore” will take you to Pottermore Shop, where you will need to create a separate account. Like all Kindle books, books purchased from Pottermore are “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” and will be delivered to your Kindle or free Kindle reading apps.’
Amazon’s dominance of the eBook market is such that it is able to shut out independent publishers in the States because they won’t agree to its demands. But J.K. Rowling’s commercial clout is such she can dictate terms to the kings of Amazon Kindle. Pottermore’s eBooks are being sold without digital rights management, which means that customers can easily download the books onto numerous devices — Kindle, Kobo, Nook etc — through Pottermore’s service. The only digital publisher to have rejected Rowling’s terms is Apple, which is selling the books through i-Tunes. As part of Rowling’s commitment to public libraries and widening reading, she has made the books available to libraries for free.
Harry Potter is an extraordinary money-making phenomenon, probably a one-off. But his taming of Amazon may encourage weaker publishers to be bolder in negotiation.
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