JK Rowling, once a staunch activist of being anti-ebooks, is now seeing the light of day as her agent has officially confirmed that JK Rowling is considered digitizing the Harry Potter series into electronic book form.
JK Rowling is based out of Edinburgh and has garnered almost £620 million in tangible books and the Harry Potter film franchise. Many people are in agreement that the ebook rights could prospectively sell for close to 100 million dollars.
Many publishing experts believe that the Harry Potter ebook franchise really could revolutionize the world of electronic publishing. It would further stimulate the purchase of dedicated e-readers to read the books, or if they came pre-loaded with the books on them.
Professor Claire Squires, director of Stirling University’s center for international publishing and communication, said: “It is akin to the Beatles allowing their music to be launched on iTunes.”
You can bet that Amazon is going to make a run at securing her rights, as Harry Potter remains one of the most sought after ebook series in the world. The only way to get it digitally so far was to pirate it, and oh boy did people do that. Hundreds of thousands of digital copies that were hand scanned, fan written or otherwise, has swept the world over the years.
It remains one of the largest literary franchises of a generation not in digital form and if JK Rowling (who was so anti-ebooks) is now actively considering it, we can hopefully see the digital version soon. The question remains, would you buy the ebook version?
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.