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What Book Publishers Should Learn From Harry Potter

Posted by Soulskill on from the might-makes-right dept.

New submitter Volanin writes "The e-book versions of the Harry Potter series are being released through Pottermore, and J.K. Rowling has chosen to do a number of interesting things with them, including releasing them without DRM restrictions. 'One of the encouraging things about the Pottermore launch is that the books will be available on virtually every platform simultaneously, including the Sony Reader, the Nook, the Kindle and Google's e-book service. ... even Amazon has bowed to the power of the series and done what would previously have seemed unthinkable: it sends users who come to the titles on Amazon to Pottermore to finish the transaction.'"

7 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Only sort of DRM free? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/03/27/harry-potter-ebooks-are-not-drm-free-in-kindle-format/

    1. Re:Only sort of DRM free? by Bradmont · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just buy the epub and convert it with Calibre.

    2. Re:Only sort of DRM free? by Bradmont · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, it can convert bewteen just about any ebook format you can imagine. There are also plugins to strip DRM, but amazon recently changed its DRM scheme, so YMMV.

  2. Re:good on her by hguorbray · · Score: 4, Informative

    yeah, except for giving apple 30% off the top and not being able to offer the book for less anywhere else...

    which means they have lost the right to discretionary pricing and possibly from offering the book for free...

    I'm just sayin'

  3. Why not give us the direct link? by cpu6502 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why link from Slashdot's summary to some other linkfarm's summary? Grrr. DIRECT link -

    http://paidcontent.org/article/419-you-can-buy-the-harry-potter-e-books-now/
    By Laura Hazard Owen

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  4. No DRM but has tracking by cpu6502 · · Score: 4, Informative

    They call it watermarking, but it's tracking by any other name. "The Pottermore Shop personalises eBooks with a combination of watermarking techniques that relate to the book, to the purchaser and the purchase time. This allows us to track and respond to possible copyright misuse."

    So don't copy the floppy..... er, book to your friends.

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  5. Re:good on her by geekoid · · Score: 4, Informative

    30% is comes out of the publisher.

    "not being able to offer the book for less anywhere else"
    and that's just false.

    return of the king
    Apple: 9.99
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-return-of-the-king/id503026877?mt=11

    Google: 8.51
    https://play.google.com/store/books/details/John_Ronald_Reuel_Tolkien_The_Return_Of_The_King?id=WZ0f_yUgc0UC&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImJvb2stV1owZl95VWdjMFVDIl0.
    That's just one example.

    Stop 'Just sayin' and start thinking for yourself.

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