Amazon.com Inc. has licensed the right to lend digital versions of all seven volumes in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series in the U.S., a sign of its willingness to continue funding its e-book lending library despite the costs.
Amazon has licensed the right to lend digital versions of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series in the U.S., building up its e-book lending library despite the costs. John Jannarone has details on digits. Photo: Warner Bros.
Harry Potter fans who subscribe to Amazon Prime will be able to read the e-book editions of the best-selling series free starting June 19th. As is the case for other titles offered in the lending program, titles will be available on a once-a-month basis to owners of Amazon's Kindle e-reader who have also embraced Amazon Prime. For $79 a year, subscribers to Amazon Prime get unlimited two-day shipping for no extra charge plus access to a digital library of TV shows and movies—as well as ebooks on loan.
When Amazon launched its digital lending library last November, some publishers willingly joined in and made their titles available. However, the country's six largest publishers, which sold their digital books via the "agency pricing model" in which they control the consumer retail price, declined to participate, and their books weren't included.
Other publishers also objected. But because their e-books were sold via the traditional wholesale pricing model, Amazon was able to include their titles in the lending library and treat each copy lent as an additional sale, paying the publishers accordingly. The library today boasts more than 145,000 titles.
"I assume they [Amazon] are paying tens of millions of dollars to support their lending library, and the Harry Potter agreement just took that number up by a meaningful amount," said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "They've got to have paid a wizard's ransom."
An Amazon spokeswoman on Thursday declined to comment on the terms of the Harry Potter deal or the library's broader costs. However, in a statement, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said, "This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we'll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners."
Financial details weren't disclosed but Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of Pottermore, the website that serves as global bookstore for all Harry Potter digital titles, said the "licensing fee had to make sense." The Pottermore site is owned by Ms. Rowling, author of the book series.
Mr. McQuivey said that Amazon's commitment to the lending library suggests the program is paying for itself in terms of additional book sales and the sales of unrelated merchandise that consumers may purchase when they return to the site to borrow a book. "You're also picking up a shirt for the summer, and maybe some bug spray," he said. "They've had enough time to know if it's worth their while."
It's possible that some titles published by three publishers who used the agency pricing model could eventually be included in the Kindle lending library. That's because the trio—News Corp.'sHarperCollins Publishers Inc., CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster Inc., and Lagardère SCA's Hachette Book Group—recently settled a civil antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Department that will allow retailers to discount their e-books.
Several publishers on Thursday said they haven't yet renegotiated deals with Amazon and that it's too early to tell whether their books will eventually appear in the lending library.
(courtesy:wsj.com)
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