Amazon's Kindle Store was reportedly down for the count for about an hour after the Harry Potter books hit its store shelves with a magical one-two punch.
Tuesday was a very special day for Harry Potter fans, as author J.K. Rowling finally released her popular series in ebook form. The virtual books initially went live on her Pottermore website for English-reading fans, and will be followed by editions in French, Italian, German and Spanish in a future wave. The first three Harry Potter titles are priced at $7.99 each, while the remaining four titles, which are longer, cost $9.99 each.
After the initial launch, the seven Harry Potter books then appeared on virtual stores provided by Sony, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Unlike the Pottermore storefront where Rowling will keep most of the revenue, the three ebook giants will get their fair cut of the sales. So far Apple isn't offering the books, meaning iOS users will need to make purchases via the Kindle and Nook apps.
Veteran digital publishing executive Charlie Redmayne was reportedly brought in to get Rowling's storefront on track. He said that there wouldn't be a huge marketing campaign for the Harry Potter books because high demand for the titles will be enough to drive serious sales. He's probably right, as consumer demand reportedly took down Amazon's Kindle Store shortly after the online retailer began offering Rowling's books Tuesday afternoon.
Although Amazon hasn't released a public statement regarding to what happened, reports have indicated that the U.S.-based Kindle Store showed all titles as "currently unavailable" right after the Harry Potter books went on sale. More specifically, all books sold on Amazon's Kindle Store were still listed as usual, but they didn't have pricing or purchasing options. In other words, for a short time, all consumers could do was window shop.
Even more, Kindle magazines and Kindle Singles were also unavailable to purchase including USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post -- the New York Times remained surprisingly untouched. Internationally however, everything was business as usual -- North American residents were the only consumers left out on the sidewalk for the short duration.
Eventually the Kindle Store regained most of its functionality. The latest report claims that there are still a few instaances of "currently unavailable" books showing in the Kindle Top 100 list, but most all purchasing options have been restored to normal. Ultimately Amazon's store was down for the count for about an hour, all presumably due to Harry Potter and his band of misfit wizards.
If he wanted revenge, he wouldn't have simply knock out Amazon. He would've brought Steve Jobs back to life, under one condition for him.
-Avoid Harry Potter books like a plague. Choke any companies that choose to sell the books at all cost.
OR, he could've simply outright BBQ Amazon's servers.
They might, but it will be like Beatles fans that have every copy of the White Album, from vinyl, 8 track, tape, minidisc to download
It's because we've reached peak e-ink. We need to start conserving/charging more for ebooks now, or else we won't have any e-readers within 10 years. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?
You're right, I think a 10-page pamphlet should be valued at the same price as a 500 page epic, also popularity/talent of the author and demand for the title should have no bearing on market prices. /sarcasm
I couldn't care less about Harry Potter. But I can't stand the entitlement mentality either.
This isn't about entitlement, get to know me before you start talking like that.
From a business model point of view, selling them for £2-3 each would a) get more fans to buy them again, b) introduce new fans (who might otherwise buy secondhand at zero benefit to the publishers) c) those new fans will then also go out and buy/watch the films etc.
Benefit to both the publisher and the customer is positive.