Harry Potter E-Book Officially Nixed

J.K. Rowling's Literary Agency Cite Piracy Concerns as Leading Reason for Decision

Wanda Leibowitz
Wanda Leibowitz, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Feb 4, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Rumors that Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling would allow the release of an E-Book edition of the seventh and final book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," were officially quieted today. Neil Blair, a lawyer from Rowling's literary agency, told Associated Press reporters Sunday that no Harry Potter E-Book editions, of the new book or of any works in the series, are scheduled for the foreseeable future.

Blair cited worries about online piracy as one motivating reason behind the decision not to publish the new Harry Potter book in a digital format. The Harry Potter series has not substantially suffered from illegal online distribution so far, although piracy incidents have been documented. The most recent book to be published in the series was illegally posted online in an E-Book format within twelve hours of its hardcover release. Rowling and her legal team are reticent to take steps that could enable or encourage further piracy of the wildly popular Harry Potter works.

Piracy was a major factor in the decision, but not the only reason that Blair gave; he also cited Rowling's personal preference for printed volumes over electronic publications. Rowling has publicly stated her partiality for writing and reading works on paper rather than on-screen. In interviews, Rowling repeatedly confirms that she wrote the entire Harry Potter series longhand, and that she prefers her readers to "experience the books on paper."

Recent advances in E-Book technology, including the much-touted Sony Portable Reader released earlier this year, continue to increase the market share of E-Books in the publishing industry. According to quarterly reports put out by the International Digital Publishing Forum, the E-Book industry is growing in the double digits yearly. However, E-Books still represent a relatively small fraction of the multimillion dollar publishing industry.

Scholastic and Bloomsbury, the publishers of the new Harry Potter book, have a variety of editions planned including hardcover versions targeted to both children and adults, along with a special gift edition, an audio book, and a reinforced edition created solely for libraries.

The hardcover edition of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be the first version of the book released to the consumer market, and is scheduled to hit bookstores on July 21. The six previous books in the Harry Potter series have sold a record-breaking total of over 325 million combined copies, and pre-orders for "Deathly Hallows" have already vaulted the as yet unavailable tome onto the bestseller list.

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/04/AR2007020400654.html
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9154/52/
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050719/1436215_F.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book

Published by Wanda Leibowitz

My writing has been published in print, recorded on audio CD, and performed onstage, but there's nothing quite like working for the web. I love the freedom, flexibility, and fast pace of writing for AC.  View profile

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  • Nicki Greenwood7/31/2009

    As an E-published author, I'm already in the ring for pro-E-publishing. While JKR is within her rights to do whatever she likes, I feel it defeats the purpose of expanding your readership to avoid releasing your book in another format. People are going to pirate your work, no matter how you release it. But offering the option of an E-book at least gives others the chance to be introduced to your work another way. I would think JKR, who's a strong advocate of growing readers, would want that. Moreover, E-books save trees. That's one of the main reasons I like E-publishing, and I wish she would consider that.

  • KindleOwner7/13/2009

    I find it unreal that Rowling can be so closed-minded on releasing the series to e-books. After years of cluttering my shelves and having no room for anything except books, I have turned to only buying reading material in electronic format. I am very disappointed as I have not read the last book, and will not unless it is released to the Kindle (my e-book reader of choice) because I have no room to store another book, and it certainly will not fit in my purse. How can she be so snobbish to deny current technology? We don't all love writing as much as she does, but we do like reading. In a few years, e-books will be so prevalent, it will be like saying you will only sell the movies on VHS tapes. Sorry, Rowling, but you can't dynamically change the font size on a printed book, or make perfectly erasable marks in it either.

  • Nymous7/9/2009

    It makes no sense to release audiobooks, but not ebooks and cite piracy as the reason. They've also ignored the fact that people who pirate these books are willing to type them out by hand to share. The ebook versions are out there.
    It's stupid of them not to even try to get money for it. There's no telling how many of these pirates would buy a legit copy if it were made available. There'll still be people who want something for nothing, but there are a lot of people who only pirate things that aren't made available for purchase (old movies, obscure music, etc).

  • ND8/16/2007

    There is only one word for it - AWESOME

  • Amy Brantley2/5/2007

    Very well written :)

  • saumendra2/4/2007

    The waiting time for the last Harry potter book by J.K. Rowling is so much that people assumes much more than the author.

  • Alisha Michelle Jett2/4/2007

    Very interesting. Great job!

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