There ain't no Harry Potter magic in e-books

[Hadrien]

Here's a selection that could suit her daughter:
Oz: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_author/96
Grimm's Fairy Tales: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/187
The Arabian Nights: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/208
A Christmas Carol: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/59
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/22
Treasure Island: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/97

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I'm sure the issue is simply being afraid of losing revenue to pirates, an attitude of which Scholastic is probably convinced, and is therefore convincing her. The rest is... how would you say it?... "smoke and mirrors."

[NatCh]

But Scholastic publishes other titles titles electronically.

[wallcraft]

Rowling's concern about online piracy is just silly, but her desire for readers to experience the books on paper has some validity. This is somewhat diminished by the fact that there are Harry Potter movies though, and even more so by the audio books.

I think it is probably more likely for a new reader to get hooked on books after reading a paper Harry Potter book than, say, a Sony Reader version.

[yvanleterrible]

I can just hear Lauzon blasting me but DRM is a good incitement to promotion of ebook sales. I talked to an author a little while back. When I brought up the subject of ebooks she got negatively fired up. As soon as I saw the smoke I explained about DRM and things began to change. She said she'd try to talk it over with her publishing house. I'm sure that with the right ambassador, Janet Kathleen (she's younger'n'me ) might see the light.

[NatCh]

That's the only positive aspect I see to DRM: it does seem to calm some of the knee-jerk "but they'll steal me blind" reaction on the part of the authors and publishers, which in turn allows them to consider the idea (more) rationally.

In their defense, the matter that we discuss in so clinically detached a manner, is to them food in the mouths of their families and themselves. It's shouldn't really be a surprise to us that they are rather ... concerned about it.

The reason I don't choose to take an absolute "No DRM" stance myself -- though I do not, in any way mean to disparage those who do -- is both that I recognize that fact (and find it quite compelling), and that I really think that in the long run, this DRM thing will either shake out to something we can all actually live with (on both sides of the matter), or the world will reach a point where they realize that it's not actually helpful and drop it entirely.

I don't have problem, personally, with being prevented from copying an e-book wholesale, as long as I can read it as I want on whatever media I like, and can lend/give/sell it. If a DRM scheme comes down the pike that permits all that, I really think the matter will become moot.

[nekokami]

Interesting, if old, article here: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...7367_114192957

According to this, publishers don't think kid's ebooks will sell the way adult ebooks do. (Never mind for the moment that the Harry Potter series is so popular with adults that they publish a separate edition with more subdued covers in the UK and Canada, so adults won't embarrass themselves on the train, I guess.) The overall consensus seems to be that kids don't have devices worth reading books on. Yes, I know e ink is wonderful, but the devices are still very expensive considering functionality offered compared to, say, a Nintendo DS for $129 or an iPod Nano for $149. (Yes, I'd rather have an ebook reader than a DS, too. But we're talking about how kids spend their money, not us die-hard book fans.) And the devices haven't been marketed to kids, either. They've been marketed to "serious readers" and tech geeks. They don't come in multiple colors. They don't have many sorts of custom accessories. The text just sits there, when everything else in their ADD-inflicting lives moves at lightspeed.

I personally think the best chance eBooks have with kids is if they could be viewed on a Video iPod or a Nintendo DS or similar. Maybe certain kinds of phones. Not because these offer the best reading experiences, but because these are the devices the kids have. For an e ink reader to be successful, someone needs to come up with an application that is fascinating to kids and works with e ink, in addition to reading books, e.g. email or textmessaging or choose-your-own-adventure stories or (more likely) something I've never thought of. And the prices need to be slashed by about half.

I know it was a joke, but the custom Hogwarts e-reader pre-loaded with the whole series, in one of the four school House colors could actually help the situation, if Rowling would do it. Maybe a good way to convince her would be to bundle a whole bunch of other literature along with it, so she'd know that not only would the kids be reading her books, but they'd be exposed to tons of other material that she thinks would be good for them to read.

If anyone does decide to send her (or Jessica) a reader, let's make a custom sleeve for it with the Gryffindor colors and logo.

[yvanleterrible]

If you look at it an other way, the kids that grew up with Harry from the start are adults now. More and more of them can afford readers...

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

...the kids that grew up with Harry from the start are adults now....

So are the kids that grew up in Harry Potter (the movies)! "Harry Potter and the Wheelchair of Incontinence" anyone?

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Here's a selection that could suit her daughter:
Oz: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_author/96
Grimm's Fairy Tales: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/187
The Arabian Nights: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/208
A Christmas Carol: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/59
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/22
Treasure Island: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/97

Great choices, though I think it would be important to include some commercially current books as well, to make the point that her contemporaries are taking the step that she's holding back from. That's why I suggested including Paolini, Pullman, etc. Unfortunately, Sony Connect doesn't even have a Children's section, and their scanty Young Adult section is buried under Fiction. (But in addition to the books we've already recommended for Jessica, I did notice some Susan Cooper and Meg Cabot titles that would probably be good to add to the list.)

Heck, if we could get someone to donate a Reader, I'd chip in for a couple of books for Jessica. The kid's got to have a birthday sometime this year, right? Let's send her a MobileRead present!

[nekokami]

Since I don't own a Sony reader, I wasn't sure what the status of accessories, i.e. book covers was for it. I just looked and saw a nice red cover that could have the Griffindor logo laminated to it using a t-shirt transfer sheet. Mockups attached.

Jessica Rowling's birthday is July 28. She'll be 14 this year. Maybe we should take up a collection through Amazon Honor System or similar. The avid readers at the "Harry Potter for Grown-Ups" email list would likely help. If we didn't pull in enough to cover the reader, books, and shipping, we could donate the money to one of Rowling's preferred charities, e.g. Médecins Sans Frontières. (Actually, this would make a good overall goal and destination for any funds collected in excess of the amount required, as well.)

How about it? Would anyone here be willing to chip in, say, US$10 or the equivalent? We'd only need about 40 people to cover the project. It could be a good way to get our point across, a good charitable cause, and a nice gift for a kid who's shared her mum with millions.

I'd be willing to coordinate if there's at least some interest....

PS - I would have preferred to put the Slytherins on the stock black cover for effect, but since there's no blue cover for Ravenclaw, I had to use brown (for bronze) and that meant using black for Hufflepuff, as their colors are yellow and black. And anyway, the Slytherin colors really are green and silver, not black, whatever the rest of the school may think of them.

PPS - embroidered patches for the Houses are available e.g. on eBay and would look even nicer.

[NatCh]

I'd chip in on that.

You might want to start a separate thread for this, neko, one with a poll, perhaps.

Before we get too far with it, we ought to make sure that we have a way to get the rascal to her (i.e. someplace to send it to).

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Before we get too far with it, we ought to make sure that we have a way to get the rascal to her (i.e. someplace to send it to).

Easy-peasy. We send it to her publisher or her agent, both of whom have public addresses. That's how Ms. Rowling gets her fan mail, so once they've checked this odd package to make sure it's not a nasty bomb or something, they'll pass it along, I'm pretty sure. (And by then, its nature will probably be pretty public -- I'm afraid there's no way to make it a surprise gift with a public call for donations.)

I'll start another thread tomorrow, with a poll. It's late here and I should get some sleep. (Stayed up too late reading ebooks again. )