Found via eBookNewser: OverDrive has temporarily postponed library pre-sales of the forthcoming Harry Potter e-books. Overdrive Public Relations and Social Media Specialist Michael Lovett writes: We’re excited about the forthcoming launch of Harry Potter eBooks and digital audiobooks for library lending. We’re working with Pottermore to introduce this compelling series, and as part of the process of coordinating launch plans with Pottermore, we have temporarily suspended pre-sales and display of these titles at library websites. This is only a postponement, and libraries will soon be able to resume pre-ordering the titles in preparation for launch in...

The Houston Press’s Books blog has a roundup of five classic novels you cannot (yet) read on a Kindle, for various reasons. The reasons are actually the most interesting part: two of them—One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke—have to do with copyright and rights issues—Solitude involves payments to the English translator, and 2001 is available in other countries but not in the US. Two more—The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee—are unavailable because their authors didn’t want adaptations...

Not long after one of The Guardian’s writers complained about Pottermore’s eternal closed beta, the Pottermore website has announced it will be opening to all in early April, only six months after it had originally intended to do so. Apart from a variety of social activities themed around the Harry Potter universe, Pottermore will also be the source of the long-awaited official (and DRM-free!) Harry Potter e-books. The lengthy delay came about, Pottermore’s announcement explains, because the early beta stages revealed that the site, as originally conceived, was not going to hold up under visits by millions of users:...

From the press release: Pottermore, the online experience and home of the Harry Potter eBooks created by J.K. Rowling and partnered by Sony, announced today it has entered into an exclusive worldwide eBook and digital audiobook distribution agreement with OverDrive for public and school libraries.  Under the terms of the agreement, OverDrive, a leading global distributor of eBooks and digital audiobooks, will manage hosting and digital fulfillment for libraries for the Harry Potter collection of eBooks and digital audiobooks in English and more than 20 other languages to OverDrive’s growing network of over 18,000 public and school libraries worldwide. Through local public library and school catalogues, OverDrive’s digital book lending service will promote to new and returning readers a popular way...

More proof, if any was needed, that writers write for more reasons than just money. J.K. Rowling, who could live comfortably off of Harry Potter even if she never wrote another word in her life, has announced she will be publishing an adult novel later this year. There is no word yet as to what the book will be about or even what genre it will be in, but Rowling is publishing it through Hachette’s Little, Brown imprint in both the US and UK, and other Hachette companies worldwide. Notably, Little, Brown will have the e-book as well as...

We know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but what about by its spine? On the Scholastic “On Our Minds” blog, Jessica writes about the common misconception that kids won’t read books that are too lengthy. But she notices there is significant evidence that this is a misconception. Look at some of the titles being read by kids and teens.  Besides the Steve Jobs book weighing in at 656 pages, the smallest book in the Twilight series clocked in at just fewer than 500 pages.  The rest of them were bigger.  The...

Pottermore has a 17-question survey for Harry Potter fans, asking about what Potter books they’ve read and own, what e-readers they use, and how interested they would be in buying Harry Potter e-books and audiobooks. As Laura Hazard Owen notes at PaidContent, one of the questions asks what could keep fans from buying the Potter books, and one of the choices is not having a credit or debit card. This suggests that Pottermore may come up with a way of letting parents add money to children’s accounts so they can buy the books they want. But I...

The Bookseller reports that the Pottermore website has postponed the release of the Harry Potter e-books until the first half of 2012. The site’s web shop will now open in 2012 instead of early October as previously planned. Pottermore is also extending the beta-testing period of the website, and will now open registration to new users at the end of October....

More details are coming out about Sony’s latest entry into the e-reader market, the T1. At 168g (5.9 oz), the device is touted as the lightest e-reader ever, with a 6” touchscreen display, stylus, and built-in wi-fi access. The wi-fi will allow purchases from Sony’s on-line bookstore, and also borrowing e-books wirelessly from libraries that support it. The US cost of the device will be $149. Available in red, white, and black colors, the black version (but not the other two) will include a coupon for a free download of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone “while supplies last”....

Ah, the term “game changer”. It gets bandied about a lot, whenever something comes along that’s so new and different that it…well…changes the game. I’ve used it myself, in reference to Apple’s iPod Touch. The latest game changer, according to the children’s publishing industry, is J.K. Rowling’s site Pottermore. By combining e-book sales with a virtual world, it offers an entirely new way to market e-books, and one that looks as though it could be wildly successful. An article on The Bookseller seems to think there’s something particularly special and attractive about virtual worlds. ...

That's what The Register is reporting. The bespectacled wizard debuts in digital format in October – the same time as the Sony-sponsored Pottermore "online reading experience" goes live – according to well-placed sources in the vendor's retail channel. But for richer Potterites who can hang fire for a month, a second bundle will be released including all seven books in the series, a letter from author JK Rowling, subscription to Pottermore and a themed carry case. ... The package is being hailed as the "hero" product – the biggest seller – for Christmas by some in the retail channel. Sony confirmed...

Ebooknewser reports that the Harry Potter website Pottermore has begun running a contest to give some few lucky fans beta access to the site (scheduled to launch officially in October). The contest takes the form of a once-a-day trivia question, which will be posted at a random time throughout the day. The first few fans to supply the answer each day will be allowed in early. I look forward to being able to try the site out myself, but am more or less resigned to waiting for October....