'Pottermore' is the unique collaboration between the Harry Potter creator and Sony to develop an innovative website that aims to enhance and expand the readers’ experience, and, more importantly for the publishing sphere, act as a distribution forum for the eBook versions. This new website aims to complement the novels and provide backgrounds to minor characters, act as a community for fans to discuss and explore the literary phenomenon, including the opportunity to 'role play' as a 'Hogwarts' student, and exclusively purchase the sought after eBook versions of the seven stories. The opportunity to purchase the eBooks exclusively from the site has caused uproar in the publishing sphere, with bookstores being removed from the equation and resenting the missed opportunity to profit from a series of books they worked hard to promote. In addition to this, the eBooks, although supported by e-readers, cannot be bought on websites that support the hardware (eg. Kindle users cannot purchase the eBooks from Amazon, which is a first for eBook purchasing!) ‘Pottermore’ acts as an example of a business model that may find itself being increasingly implemented by publishers globally as a way of removing the costly distribution process from the equation.
No comments:
Post a Comment