The Harry Potter books will come out at the end in electronic format

The creator of Harry Potter literary saga presented this Thursday in London Pottermore, an electronic library dedicated to the stories of the magician in which in addition to sell e-books the author shared unpublished material with followers of his work, who will also participate in a virtual adventure.

For Rowling, Pottermore is a way "to give back something to the fans who have followed Harry so devotedly throughout the years", and a means to "bring the stories to a new generation of virtual". This website fans can access unpublished material on characters, sharing books and help grow the universe of the series with reviews, drawings, and other contributions, reports Efe. Although it will not open officially until October 1, 31 July may already register up to one million users.

Rowling added that, since 1998, when he began the series of novels, has been generating much more material which has come to appear in the books, and this material can now see the light on the internet. The writer admitted that it is possible to publish an encyclopedia of Harry Potter, but assured that it will not take another novel, giving end the saga that has become a multimillion-dollar.

Can you read on the Kindle?

The device from Amazon is the most popular electronic book of the world, but the library does not allow its users to buy books in other libraries. Thus, the e-book world has been divided into two parts: Kindle users, employing a proprietary format protected with particular copy from Amazon, and all others, who use the Epub format with protection from Adobe.

Amazon has not so far outside his store to sell ebooks for Kindle, even as unprotected format is open and known there would be no problem in doing so. But it is doubtful that Rowling is going to sell his book without protection, although you never know. So Amazon certainly have before it a hard choice: allows to use their format outside his store or upgrade the Kindle software to accept the Epub format. But there is no doubt that something will make Amazon, since it cannot allow making the Kindle e-book in which the saga of Harry Potter could not be read.

In either case, users will lose an e-book purchase experience: when you purchase one on the Amazon website this is transferred wirelessly to the Kindle. On the contrary, the use of an e-book in Epub with Adobe DRM protection requires a lot of steps, making it quite uncomfortable.

An earthquake for the publishing industry

Rowling conversion to the digital world will have big implications for the publishing industry, although it is not yet clear what, according to the Financial Times, comparing the "Damascene conversion" of the until now advocate wishful thinking of the printed paper with the arrival of the Beatles Apple's Itunes last November.

This movement is leaving to the publishers of his books, Rowling has the rights to the electronic edition of his novels. In addition, to directly sell their material to readers, the writer of the world's richest leave out intermediaries such as Amazon or Itunes.

So far the e-book revolution is allowing some authors who lack support from a large Publisher to have a great success. Amazon, which controls approximately two thirds of the market thanks to its Kindle e-book, announced this week that John Locke is the first author who back without a large Publisher, has managed to sell more than one million books for Kindle.

This movement of J.K. Rowling could allow others sell their work without the intermediation of the own online libraries. However, many writers would cost them an enormous effort trying to emulate it, lacking the fans of the Potter saga, its brand and enough money to create an own portal that attracts the attention. According to Shahid Khan, of the MAG consulting, while it is true that the big bands as Radiohead get to sell directly to consumers, other smaller groups have failed in the attempt.

In the same way, even if Amazon will surely change their policies by Rowling, it seems difficult to do so by anyone else, so it is difficult for other authors to follow that step for independence both libraries and publishers, who see as the biggest danger to your business that increasingly more authors ignore its role and work directly with Amazon and other intermediaries.