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New York (pte019/15.06.2005/11:23) - The only way to read a legal copy of JK Rowling's new instalment of Harry Potter, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince', http://www.jkrowling.com/ will be the old-fashioned printed version. The author, whose books about Harry the wizard and his sidekicks have almost single-handedly rejuvenated children's literature, refuses to have her books printed electronically.
"This has not been an area that we have sought to license," said Neil Blair, a lawyer with Rowling's literary agency said, not commenting directly on whether pirated e-books were hurting sales.
"We monitor the Internet and take appropriate action," Blair said.
Although Rowling is not the only successful author who does not endorse the e-book industry, the fact remains that children's books don't sell well in e-book form.
Jason Campbell, marketing director for Harper Media says: "It's not like we haven't tried this market."
Harper Media has e-published R.L. Stine and (Meg Cabot's) 'The Princess Diaries' and it didn't work. "'Princess Diaries' has been our most successful young adult series in e-books," says Campbell, "but it pales in comparison to e-book sales for Michael Crichton."
Publishers of children's literature originally thought that their books would do well online, but it hasn't been the case. They are still trying to work out why.
Barbara Marcus, president of the children's books division of Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic, Inc said: "I didn't think then, and I don't think now, that there is a cool enough or interesting enough hardware to get the kids engaged."
In contrast, adult e-books, such as Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code', or David McCullough's '1776' sell very well.
There are several possible reasons why children's e-books don't do well: authors preferring print versions, the threat of digital piracy, and TV and other media competition.
Nevertheless, the e-book market is a growing one, though still, hard copies are more popular. Net revenues reached US$9.6 million last year - up by US$4 million, compared to two years ago, according to trade organisation Open eBook Forum http://www.openebook.org. It says that 1.7 million e-books are sold annually, despite the decline in published e-books.
Nicholas Bogaty, executive director of the Open eBook Forum thinks that the Harry Potter books would sell well as e-books. "I'm sure it would be a very big book very quickly and would probably serve as a terrific marketing vehicle to get people to buy the print book."
Whether it ever appears in e-form or not, Harry Potter fans await eagerly the next instalment of the now teenage wizard's life.
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