Google Strikes Deal With J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore for Harry Potter Ebooks

by Ben Parr

Google has announced that it has teamed up with J.K. Rowling’sPottermore to make the Harry Potter books available through Google’s literary products.

Starting this fall, all seven Harry Potter tomes will make their debut onGoogle eBooks, the search giant’s ebookstore. Unlike most digital book platforms, Google eBooks lets users port their purchases to more than 80 ereaders. The books will also be available through Google Books and the company’s iOS and Android apps.

As part of the distribution deal, Google also secured exclusive rights to be the payment platform for all Pottermore.com purchases. That means you will be paying for your ebooks and audiobooks via Google Checkout rather than PayPal or Amazon Payments.

Pottermore, which launches this fall, is designed to be an interactive online reading experience. It will also be the exclusive place to purchase the ebook versions of Harry Potter. The site is rumored to have gaming elements, awards and achievements, and virtual items.

Harry Potter mania is at an all-time high, despite the last book being released in 2007. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the final film in the cinematic adaptation of the series, is breaking box office recordsand is set to become the first billion-dollar movie in the franchise.

First Google eBooks Device To Go on Sale at Target This Week

 by Todd Wasserman

Google will make inroads into the ereader market next week when the first such device using the Google eBooks platform will go on sale at Target.

The iriver Story HD will retail for $139.99 — the same price as theKindle and the Nook Simple Touch Reader — at the chain July 17, according to a blog post from Google. The device sports a qwerty keyboard and a black-and-grey screen similar to the Kindle. It also can access more than 3 million free Google eBooks and hundreds of thousands of paid ebooks in the system. The device is the first to be able to download the eBook titles via a Wi-Fi connection. Previously, users had to download the titles with a PC and then transfer them to the ereader.

Google entered the ebooks market in earnest in December with its Google eBookstore. Since then, the company has been expanding distribution for the format — it added its 250th independent bookstore partner in May.