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What Book Publishers Should Learn From Harry Potter
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.'"
I agree with the DRM free part, but why do I have to be redirected to Pottermore? I don't want my financial details all over the place.
They in no way lose any of that "right".
What they lose is the "right" to charge less for it in other places, they can offer it free on iBooks just as they do elsewhere. You can change prices anytime you like.
Apple is doing a substantial amount of legwork for free (yes, free, even if you never actually sell a copy) and they don't want people getting the advertising and such from iBooks but encouraging people to direct-buy it for 20% less.