# Harry Potter?



## beckyj20 (Jun 12, 2010)

Am I missing something or do they seriously not have harry potter on the kindle?


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## MAGreen (Jan 5, 2009)

Nope, Rowling is against e-books, so she refuses to let the publisher release it in e-book format. There has been some whispers about her changing her stance, but so far no e-books.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Yup. Sad, but true.


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## kwajkat (Nov 6, 2008)

Yup the only you can get them in eformat is bootleg copies from ebay etc. They are usually in pdf format so you have to convert them over.  Too bad she feels that way about ebooks, can you imagine how much money she is losing not that it is a issue for her I am sure.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

kwajkat said:


> Yup the only you can get them in eformat is bootleg copies from ebay etc. They are usually in pdf format so you have to convert them over.


Screw that, if you're going to illegally download ebooks, get them for free and in mobi format from a torrent site.


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

As far as I know, this was the last official pronouncement - http://www.thebookseller.com/news/119581-rowling-opens-door-to-digital-harry-potter-books.html - I assume JKR may have initially thought that ebooks were some weird thing for techno-dudes, but as Kindle and other ereaders are really becoming popular I'm sure we will see Harry Potter on Kindle in the not too distant future.


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## beckyj20 (Jun 12, 2010)

I was planning on reading the series this summer, but I am NOT reading those huge books unless I can read them on the kindle!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Well, to be fair, the first few aren't that huge. . . .


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## mistyd107 (May 22, 2009)

yes its true sadly,,,It would rea;;y help a girl out if they were considering I'm about to start rereading them for a third time sadly I'm just not that lucky lol


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

Obtain a copy of the ebook and mail her a fair cash payment.


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## mscottwriter (Nov 5, 2010)

Okay,that explains it!

My daughter got a Kindle for Christmas, and really the top reason I bought it for her was so that she could read the HP series over again.  Boy, were we disappointed to see that the books aren't in Kindle format.


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## Stephen T. Harper (Dec 20, 2010)

It's an odd position to take if she is truly, as I've read elsewhere, afraid of piracy.  Wouldn't being unavailable on the internet actually encourage piracy?


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

As soon as the last DVD is out and they've milked the series in every way they can, I think we'll see ebooks. It wouldn't surprise me if they are preparing them now and we'll get a big surprise announcement from Amazon.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

STH said:


> It's an odd position to take if she is truly, as I've read elsewhere, afraid of piracy. Wouldn't being unavailable on the internet actually encourage piracy?


It already has. The books are available in literally hundreds of sites (illegally). The each showed up there almost before the print was dry on the DTBs.

Mike


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## Alice Y. Yeh (Jul 14, 2010)

Anyone want to place bets on when we think JKR will cave? We can document our predictions here.

Just kidding. Really, it's only a matter of time, though I have to say -- I do love looking at the seven fatties on my shelf.


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> As soon as the last DVD is out and they've milked the series in every way they can, I think we'll see ebooks. It wouldn't surprise me if they are preparing them now and we'll get a big surprise announcement from Amazon.


I'm hoping that they are preparing them, so we skip the wait between announcing that they will become available and becoming available. I believe it took a year from announcing John Grisham had agreed to eBooks to them becoming available. Personally, I'm hoping for an active table of contents, chapter indexes, and the artwork at the beginning of each capter in the Scholastic editions to be included. 

The last official word I saw was around the time of the article Daphne posted, but there is a nice rumor that Barnes and Nobles will make an announcement (or get them) this January. I'm not holding my breath it will happen in the next twelve days but I see it as a positive people are talking about the eBooks happening and it is just another step in the journey.

Like the OP, I don't think we will hear anything official until the last movie/DVD is out.


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

I wonder if Rowling is really the hold-up and not the publisher who is still seeing strong book sales. Seriously, if Rowling thinks e-readers are "not true to books" and can actually block ebook versions then why would she authorize AUDIOBOOKS of the HP series? Heck, you aren't even reading those!

And I don't really think a multi-billionaire is worried about piracy. I think this is just the publisher not wanting to cannibalise healthy DTB sales and struggling with how much to charge for the e-books. I bet $15/each!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I do not believe that JKR's stand had to do with Piracy except maybe peripherally.  I think she was mostly thinking that kids have enough screens nowadays, and the stories should be read on paper because that makes you slow down and really engage your mind.  More or less equating e-books with games and tv and movies. . .and not wanting the books to be pushed aside by other things, so keep them "books".  (I know she licensed HP for games and movies and such, but none of those came out until well after the related book.)  Mostly I would guess she was thinking nostalgically -- wanting kids to experience the stories out of books the way she thinks of books.

But, I expect she's being educated about ebooks and ebook readers, and that we will, sooner rather than later (though I can't define 'sooner') have Harry Potter for Kindle.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

Oh it's really her.. somewhere she was quoted in an article a couple of years ago, where she thought ereader technology would ruin her books.


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

Once we had only an oral tradition for stories, then the written word - it is the stories that matters, not the way in which they are conveyed - if the spoken word can be followed by the written word, then the e-written word is but the next step.


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## Tatiana (Aug 20, 2010)

BTackitt said:


> Oh it's really her.. somewhere she was quoted in an article a couple of years ago, where she thought ereader technology would ruin her books.


Did she happen to mention HOW eReader technology was going to ruin her books? What on earth could an eReader do to ruin her books? Maybe I'm just confused about what an eReader is/does? Don't you just read a book on them? How will reading her books on an electronic device ruin them?

I just don't see the logic in her reasoning.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

The written word is a different beast entirely from the spoken word. With the spoken word, the speaker is in charge. Words come at you at the pace that the speaker chooses to bring them to you. With the written word, the reader is in charge. The reader can pause to mull things over, read them over again, go back to other pages to see what was said elsewhere, etc.

Both the spoken word and the written word are capable of evoking emotions. But it takes skill to do it with the written word, the spoken word is better at cheap manipulation than is the written word. If you want to whip up a mob into a violent frenzy, the spoken word is better equipped for this. Readers will tend to see right through it.

Now, ebooks versus paper books, that's a minor difference.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

QuantumIguana said:


> Obtain a copy of the ebook and mail her a fair cash payment.


LOL I love this idea.

"Here is a check for your ebooks. Since you forced me to download them for free I still thought that I should do the right thing and pay you for your work."


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## theaatkinson (Sep 22, 2010)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> As soon as the last DVD is out and they've milked the series in every way they can, I think we'll see ebooks. It wouldn't surprise me if they are preparing them now and we'll get a big surprise announcement from Amazon.


ditto. right now, there's too much potential for sales with the last movie being hung like that. Too many new readers will be buying those DTBs


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

theapatra said:


> ditto. right now, there's too much potential for sales with the last movie being hung like that. Too many new readers will be buying those DTBs


Yeah. . . but I think they still would. . . .plus many _many_ of the folks who already bought paper books once will buy them again as ebooks.


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## Basilius (Feb 20, 2010)

jmiked said:


> It already has. The books are available in literally hundreds of sites (illegally). The each showed up there almost before the print was dry on the DTBs.
> 
> Mike


I believe the first torrents of HP Book 7 started showing up 12 hours after the official release in the UK. Scanned/OCR'd releases (though devoid of much formatting.)

I'd wager the copies out there now are better produced than the official releases will be when they finally happen.


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## ReaderK (Jan 5, 2011)

I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but when Santa brought me my Kindle I was really looking to finally reading the series from front to back. Imagine my distress to find that they weren't available. I read many threads on the Amazon site from people who are downright angry at Ms. Rowling for neglecting this medium. Over the years, many people have contacted her, her publishers, Amazon, B&N, and anyone else they can find to ask for HP books to be on e-readers, only to be summarily ignored. I can see why her fans are upset with her. 

Now, it's not that JK Rowling is averse to making money on this franchise - didn't she just approve a huge Universal Studios Harry Potter attraction with all kinds of coasters and shows? Everywhere I look, someone is hawking a Harry Potter thingymabob at me. How are animatronics and mechanics so much different than her books on e-readers? I will bet you my next paycheck that they used computers in the creation of the Harry Potter movies, websites, games, merchandising, and so forth. I just can't see why she would be so against the e-book medium - and I totally understand the frustration of her fans. 

I'm not in favor of pirating anything - artists / creators deserve proper compensation if we are going to be enjoying their work. However, if they choose NOT to accommodate their audiences, they shouldn't be surprised that these audiences choose whatever way is available. It would be in Ms. Rowling's best interest - financially and public-relations wise, to make her books available on a medium that millions of people use (not just Kindle - but other e-readers as well, not to mention smartphones and the like). I think she's building a great deal of public disgruntlement because of her stubbornness. 

Fortunately, there's a buzillion other books I can get on Kindle to replace hers, and by the time she (may) release the HP books for e-readers, I won't have the inclination or time to spend money on her any longer. It's her loss, and I don't feel sorry for her one bit.


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## gdae23 (Apr 30, 2009)

This has already been said more than once on KB, but just to respond directly to ReaderK:

The impression I was left with last spring ws that JKR has agreed to the eBook format, but that there were many technical details to work out before these would actually be released. Some of this may be consideration of the financial benefits of a certain timing of the releases, but much is also probably related to various legal issues and things of that sort.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

I was not left with that impression based on what little info was released last year. I was left with the impression that the Publishers and her managers wanted to release the books and that the difficulty was getting JKR to agree to it. I think that if JKR was on board the books would have been released by now or there would have been an announcement that they were going to be released. Given the number of emails, posts, and other forms of complaints that she has to be getting that these books are not out, she would have good reason to announce that they were being released and when just to stop the mail.

I am assuming that she owns the rights, otherwise her Publisher could have released them ages ago. If she owns the rights and decides that she wants them released as e-books she would need to find a Publisher willing to do so and negotiate the payment plan. There is not a publisher in the world who wouldn't take her on for the e-books. Even if she demanded 90% of the profits the publisher would make a mint. 

OK slight exaggeration there but probably not by much. 

It shouldn't be hard to release the books. They were all written and released at a time when people would have been saving files as word or word perfect documents or some type of computer file. So converting them the EPub and Mobi should be pretty easy. There are a few illustrations and they might have to work out an agreement to include those in the ebooks but I doubt that it would be the kiss of death if the illustrations did not appear. 

I guess I don't see what the legal or technical hold up could be. I am not a lawyer so I could be missing something obvious but it seems to me to be a pretty cut and dry deal. Clancy announced his books would be available as e-books and a month later they were out. Anne Rice's books didn't take long to get out once the deal was done. The Lord of the Rings took no time once the deal was done. I can't see why Harry Potter would take all that long.


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## ReaderK (Jan 5, 2011)

gdae23 said:


> This has already been said more than once on KB, but just to respond directly to ReaderK:
> 
> The impression I was left with last spring ws that JKR has agreed to the eBook format, but that there were many technical details to work out before these would actually be released. Some of this may be consideration of the financial benefits of a certain timing of the releases, but much is also probably related to various legal issues and things of that sort.


I see what you're saying, and appreciate it! I'm sorry if I am digging up an old topic on these boards.

But from my vantage point, it's not as if she would be a pioneering author in the e-book world. Maybe I'm a little slow here, but I can't see what kinds of technical difficulties she would have in translating her books to e-format.

If it were legal issues, I can understand that, but it's been many years since her books were first published and she has the clout/pull to make her lawyers jump through all kinds of hoops, especially when you consider the potential financial gains she has to make.

If the bottleneck is her publisher, then shame on them! I just think that if JKR were truly willing to publish in an e-format, any publisher who was representing her with the power she wields (not to mention the money) would be doing backflips to accommodate her wishes.

Then again, I'm just a silly computer geek who isn't part of the publishing world, so all this is silly speculation on my part!


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## gdae23 (Apr 30, 2009)

Here's a link to an article from last May when this was in the news, so you can judge for yourself. For myself, I was left with the impression that JKR had agreed to releasing the books in eBook format. I agree that actually physically getting the books into this form shouldn't be a big deal and shouldn't really take that long. However, any kind of legal issues, even fairly simple ones, can take a long time. That's just the nature of the game. I'm looking forward to rereading the books in eBook form once they're available, whenever that might be. Until then, I have a few hundred other books on my Kindle to keep me busy!

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/119581-rowling-opens-door-to-digital-harry-potter-books.html


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## rscully (Jun 5, 2010)

Well, hopefully they'll get it done soon. I'd gladly download the whole series, let the kids read them too


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## angelmum3 (Sep 12, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Yeah. . . but I think they still would. . . .plus many _many_ of the folks who already bought paper books once will buy them again as ebooks.


Ann I have to agree with you on this because DD carts around her HP books (she's 14, she really enjoys writing fan fiction, currently based on HP ) She always says she cant wait till JKR puts them in eformat - we just hope they wont be an cost


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