Because of J.K. Rowling’s hugely successful Harry Potter books, I believe that her new site Pottermore will impact the ebook landscape for all authors.
To begin with, there’s the question of DRM (Digital Rights Management), which if placed on an ebook prevents the ebook from being read on multiple ebook platforms:
Just as I was wrestling with this question for my upcoming ebook release of “Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders,” articles about the Pottermore announcement stated that Rowling will NOT use DRM on the Harry Potter ebooks.
That made my decision very easy. I’m going to emulate J.K. Rowling and not put DRM on “Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders.”
Second, there is the comfort level with reading ebooks that should increase thanks to Pottermore:
People who up to now have not been reading ebooks may decide to start so that they can carry around with them all of Harry’s adventures on a small device rather than lugging around even one of the heavy Harry Potter tomes.
Of course, once these people get accustomed to reading on an ebook platform, they can be expected to read other books on an ebook platform.
This second point is extremely important because many people have difficulty deciding to try new technologies. But with Harry Potter ebooks paving the way, these difficulties may be more easily overcome by millions of Potter fans.
Third, more people will be able to legally obtain a book than they can now:
For example, people in South Africa speak English but often an American or British book is not released at all in South Africa or only released many months after the book is released in the U.S. or the U.K. Thus South African fans of a particular author may be reduced to trying to obtain an author’s new book whatever way they can.
The Pottermore site will enable people all over the world to buy the ebooks at the same time, thereby overcoming this obstacle of a country-by-country publishing pattern.
Imagine how this ability can encourage other book authors to make ebook versions available when their books first come out. This way everyone around the world who wants to can read the book when it is first available.
(On a personal note, the Pottermore site description gave me an idea for Yael’s website www.HurricaneHoodoo.com for her as yet unfinished Middle Grade fantasy novel “Jack Strom and New Orleans Hoodoo.” She can add games and interactive activities to the site to get Middle Grade readers interested in the proposed book series.)
These new ebook opportunities being championed by J.K. Rowling are very exciting for book authors and book readers. And it will also be exciting to see the even more new opportunities that will undoubtedly soon arise.
© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at @ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at @MillerMosaicLLC
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: TheEbookEditor
June 26, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Kudos to you for ditching DRM!
Chris –
It helped knowing that you also thought DRM should be ditched.
I am intrigued how the new Pottermore endeavor will affect e-publishing. This writing and publishing journey is a never-ending learning and adapting process.
And I find this “never-ending learning and adapting process” exciting! We never know what new opportunities will soon be available to us.