Harry Potter could go digital

[Poppaea]

I read somewhere she refuses the ebooks because HP are childrens books and children don't own readers (normally). It might be she said so at a time when readers were outragously expensive.

This makes perfect sense and shows she is not greedy. If she were, she would take advantage of those who never grew up/missed something in their childhood or whatever it is that makes people read childrens books.

My guess is, she will come round when Kindle/readers come down to 50$ or are more or less for free or hired out by the libraries.

[carpetmojo]

Poppaea, your suggestion is more likely to be nearer any other reason - it may sound strange to some, but, the amount of her profits that she has given away to charity & medical research more than supports this possibility. [As do her financial struggles early on]

I feel she is someone who has enjoyed her success [mostly], and shared some of the fruits of her success with others in need. I/my son have the physical set, and I'll download the ebooks legally whenever they're available.

Frankly, I admire her for saying it, and believe her.

Good luck to her I say.

[TenaciousBadger]

It would be interesting to find out how many of the Harry Potter readers were children and how many teenagers and adults. I always got the feeling a great part of the HP readership consisted of adults.

[Hellmark]

Also, keep in mind how many people grew up with Harry, and now want to reread. Many of those people who aged with Harry, may not have their original copies anymore, after moving out of home or going to college.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

I read somewhere she refuses the ebooks because HP are childrens books and children don't own readers (normally). It might be she said so at a time when readers were outragously expensive.

This makes perfect sense and shows she is not greedy. If she were, she would take advantage of those who never grew up/missed something in their childhood or whatever it is that makes people read childrens books.

My guess is, she will come round when Kindle/readers come down to 50$ or are more or less for free or hired out by the libraries.

This would only make sense if it were an either-or proposition: the HP books in paper or digital, not both.

I think it's more likely that she IS greedy, that she thought waiting would create scarcity and after a few years the people who bought paper would happily rebuy digital and she'd make buckets of money again. She (or her people) probably didn't think readers would create their own digital versions and make them readily available.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Catlady

This would only make sense if it were an either-or proposition: the HP books in paper or digital, not both.

????? Why?

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger

It would be interesting to find out how many of the Harry Potter readers were children and how many teenagers and adults. I always got the feeling a great part of the HP readership consisted of adults.

An awful lot of parents bought the first when it was just a bit advanced for their off-spring, and were complicit in reading it to them (usually blackmail had a say in it) and found themselves being rather pleased at a "Kid's" story that didn't condescend much, or "read down" to them,went at a lick, was very entertaining, and the readees absolutely loved.
And got them upstairs and washed and in bed FAST.....

Or so I've been told.

Course, it was decidedly Satanic to some people ( so much so they didn't dare read it, poor weak souls) but you can't have everything...........

[TenaciousBadger]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

...Or so I've been told.

I only saw the films but from what I could gather the stories did not read like kids' stories. They're just too complex. When I was a kid, I liked my fairytales and whatnot fairly simple (so I could make sense of them at 10/11 years of age ). A tome like the books would have turned me off like nobody's business (they still do, it's the reason I've never read HP... hmmm, could be me the

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Course, it was decidedly Satanic to some people ( so much so they didn't dare read it, poor weak souls) but you can't have everything...........

See this part is where they (EDIT: as in they who thought it was Satanic) lost me... Left me feeling completely flabbergasted, actually!

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

????? Why?

Because her publishers can easily keep printing physical books along with the digital versions.

There's nothing about putting out a digital copy that makes all the physical copies people buy for their kids suddenly vanish in a puff of smoke. All she's done is take away one choice of format. Her logic is very strange, and makes no sense.

I think she's going to find that while digital releases may sell a bit at first, for many it may be too little, too late. I actually got my copies of the series for my kids used, off a trading site, and got the last book at a library sale for $1. They were just too big and I don't have the space to keep them, so traded them back out after I'd read them. So she didn't really get any money from me.

But I'd have bought digital copies at the time, since that's my favorite way to read, I didn't have to find a corner to stack them in and wonder if I'd bother to keep them for grandchildren, or have to carry a huge book around with me to keep reading. I do want to re-read them some day, but now I think I've lost the interest for digital copies unless they're really, really cheap.

She should have struck when the interest was high, not when its growing cold.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger

I only saw the films but from what I could gather the stories did not read like kids' stories. They're just too complex. When I was a kid, I liked my fairytales and whatnot fairly simple (so I could make sense of them at 10/11 years of age ). A tome like the books would have turned me off like nobody's business (they still do, it's the reason I've never read HP... hmmm, could be me the

Actually, in my experience, each book seems to be on a reading level for someone who is at the age Harry is at the time. First book is good for an 11 year old to start with, second for a 12 year old, etc.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Catlady

This would only make sense if it were an either-or proposition: the HP books in paper or digital, not both.

I think it's more likely that she IS greedy, that she thought waiting would create scarcity and after a few years the people who bought paper would happily rebuy digital and she'd make buckets of money again. She (or her people) probably didn't think readers would create their own digital versions and make them readily available.

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

Because her publishers can easily keep printing physical books along with the digital versions.

She should have struck when the interest was high, not when its growing cold.

Well ladies, either my language skills are worse than I thought or you missed something else.

Of course there is no reason to go either - or. All I said was that she wanted no ebooks because HP is meant for children and children normally do not own expensive ereaders.

So this means her intentions are on the children and she does not care if you are able to buy an ebook or not. She didn't write HP for an audience with an income that has enough money to burn it on gadgets.

I do fail to see why this is greedy or stupid or whatever else you said.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger

It would be interesting to find out how many of the Harry Potter readers were children and how many teenagers and adults. I always got the feeling a great part of the HP readership consisted of adults.

I got a senior discount at the box office!

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Of course there is no reason to go either - or. All I said was that she wanted no ebooks because HP is meant for children and children normally do not own expensive ereaders.

So this means her intentions are on the children and she does not care if you are able to buy an ebook or not. She didn't write HP for an audience with an income that has enough money to burn it on gadgets.

I do fail to see why this is greedy or stupid or whatever else you said.

It's not very bright because she's turned away sales for ebooks for no reason at all.

It doesn't matter what audience she wrote it for, what matter is who her audience *is*. And there are plenty of adults in that audience, who do have eReaders.

In my family, my kids and husband had no interest in the story, so all the books I picked up in the series were for me alone. Snubbing adults who'd be interested in the books just because 1) they're adults and not children and 2) because I might have had enough money for an ereader, is not very smart.

If she's waited because she's greedy, she may find people have moved on who otherwise would have splurged on a digital copy. If she's not wanting digital copies because she's afraid they'll be pirated, she's got too many "yes men" friends and publishers who aren't telling her that it's waaaaayyyy too late to worry about that. If she doesn't care about the fact that quite a few of her fans are adults, and have electronic devices and would love to buy a copy but she could care less, then she's just beyond being silly.

None of it makes any sense to me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Wait.....wait......let me dig through my archives....maybe I have something....

Your life story. The story of a quack who's gone to the dogs.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

money ain't everything .....

Money can't buy happiness. But it can buy everything else.