Reports this week have revealed the Harry Potter books, the most celebrated of modern times, can now be purchased directly from several new online repositories.
The electronic versions of the bestselling J.K. Rowling titles had been exclusively available to buy from the Pottermore site, owned by the publishers and set-up as a means of by-passing Amazon.
Previously, they had been available on Amazon, but through the Kindle Unlimited platform in the US and the Kindle Lending Library in the UK. This is the first time they can be bought outright from Amazon.
Also benefiting are the Nook, Kobo and Google Play Books, while animated editions have been available exclusively on Apple’s iBooks platform since October.
According to The Digital Reader (via TechCrunch), which spotted the books on new stores, the reason for Pottermore’s change of heart is down to cold hard cash or, more specifically, the lack of it.
Apparently, after the expiration of a deal with Sony has meant there’s very little left in the cauldron.
The Bookseller writes:
“The site, which gives Harry Potter fans an enhanced experience of J K Rowling’s wizarding world, along with new short stories, insights and games, relaunched in September with a new mobile-first search-friendly format. Before this, in the year ending 31st March 2015, sales dropped by £24.8m – or 352% – to £7m (from £31.8m a year earlier), while profit at Pottermore also decreased significantly, from £14.9m in 2014 to a loss of £6m in 2015.”
Obviously Pottermore’s magic wand wasn’t enough to strike down Amazon.
It’s a sort of Beatles on Spotify moment really, isn’t it?
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.