Harry Potter could go digital

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Books they can lend in a library, can't they?????

Ebooks they can lend in a library, too, and they can be read on free software, or a parent's reader, or even in some cases now, a lent library reader.

But I cannot think of the Harry Potter books as "children's books" in any case. Certainly not the later ones.

ApK

[Ron.]

Yeah the last three were over 700 pages, I don't think I would of read something that long as a kid..

[ProfCrash]

Kids need someone to take them to the library to read the book. And they need an adult to sign their library card.

She has every right to say that she does not like the idea of ebooks and not put her books out as ebooks.

That doesn't mean that many people find said decision silly.

It is hard to call it foolish because she really doesn't need the money.

[apastuszak]

Is there a point to releasing them at this point. The pirated versions are top notch. I think authors underestimate how well these pirates pull stuff off.

Robert Jordan's widow wanted to wait 1 YEAR from the hardcover release of his latest wheel of time novel. Brandon Sanderson, the author finishing the books talked her down to 6 months I believe.

The first OCRed copy landed on Bittorrent about 2 weeks after the hardback came out. 2 days before the eBook came out, the proofread copy was up to version 5.0. Too little, too late at that point.

If you own an eReader, you are NOT going to buy a paper book just cause an author is being stubborn. But you will get pissed off when it's not available and seek other means.

As for these being "Kid's books" and kids don't own eReaders. My son's favorite books are the Magic Treehouse books. They are intended for a younger audience than Harry Potter and the author has released them as eBooks, in hardback, paperback and as audiobooks. I bought a dozen of them on my Kindle and my son read them.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

Is there a point to releasing them at this point.

As Andrew mentioned earlier, the same arguments were made about The Beatles catalog-and even now, 40 years later, they sold remarkably well in iTunes format.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

...
If you own an eReader, you are NOT going to buy a paper book just cause an author is being stubborn. But you will get pissed off when it's not available and seek other means.
......

Well...maybe you're not, but please don't believe for one minute that you speak for everyone.

[DiapDealer]

If you own an eReader, you are NOT going to buy a paper book just cause an author is being stubborn.

I do. If a book I want to read is not available in digital form when I'm ready to read it, I buy the pbook. I think I might bitch about it for thirty whole seconds or so--in case that redeems me in anyone's eyes--but mostly I just want to read the words... even if the ink isn't 'e.'

[ProfCrash]

I believe in supporting the authors. When she releases the books as ebooks I will buy them. I was in no hurry to read the latest Wheel of Time book so I waited until it was released. Had I decided I could not wait, I would have bought the book when it was released.

[SolRaven]

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

This no longer holds true. There are quit a few towns that plan to go all digital next school year, which means every child will have a digital reader. Some schools have already started with pilot programs.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by SolRaven

This no longer holds true. There are quit a few towns that plan to go all digital next school year, which means every child will have a digital reader. Some schools have already started with pilot programs.

I'd venture to guess that if you figured out, of the children world-wide who read Harry Potter, what percentage of them are in those schools with e-readers, the number would be, as one Microsoft product manager put it, so close to zero that no one would care. Give it a few more years....

[DiapDealer]

How would releasing them in digital format keep a physical copy out of a child's hands? The whole "because of the kids" thing just doesn't wash. She was afraid of piracy when it came to ebooks, plain and simple (and we see how that worked).

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by ApK

I'd venture to guess that if you figured out, of the children world-wide who read Harry Potter, what percentage of them are in those schools with e-readers, the number would be, as one Microsoft product manager put it, so close to zero that no one would care. Give it a few more years....

What does that have to do with the children with e-readers, which would be in the thousands, who would prefer digital copies? Just because most of the worlds children don't have bicycles doesn't mean Schwinn shouldn't make bikes for kids.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by SolRaven

What does that have to do with the children with e-readers, which would be in the thousands, who would prefer digital copies? Just because most of the worlds children don't have bicycles doesn't mean Schwinn shouldn't make bikes for kids.

And why keep it out of digital format for those kids who grew up with it? Most of the kids who I know did read it, and were the same age as my kids and are in their early twenties, have grown up and got into all the fanfic on-line.

Seems strange for them to be able to read all the HP fanfic on-line, on various reading devices, but they can't buy the Originals in digital format to go along with it.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by SolRaven

What does that have to do with the children with e-readers, which would be in the thousands, who would prefer digital copies? Just because most of the worlds children don't have bicycles doesn't mean Schwinn shouldn't make bikes for kids.

It means "kids don't have ereaders" is still true in general even if a few schools are now starting to give kids ereaders.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

How would releasing them in digital format keep a physical copy out of a child's hands?

Because if she gave them the option, some would choose the option she disliked. If she doesn't give them the option, they can't.

It didn't work any better than the piracy concern, but I see no reason to assume her motive was other than what she says. I'm completely in favor of her make some values-based choices over her own work.