Pottermore, the up and coming online reading experience from JK Rowling is sending ripples through the Harry Potter fan community as well as the literary community. What does one need to be prepared for Pottermore?
There are a few bullets to note about Pottermore at this point in time:
- Only the first book will be available from the launch, with subsequent novels appearing some months after.
- There will be interactive quizzes and games for users to participate in.
- This will be the only place to purchase ebooks of the Potter novels.
We’ve been told that there is 18,000 words of new content written by Rowling for the site. My first question is whether this is for only the first novel, or all seven? If the latter is true then that works out as just over 2,500 words per novel. This sounds a bit wrong, so we’re going to assume the 18,000 new words are in relation to Philosopher’s Stone alone. This means for each novel there may be a similar, if not higher amount of new content and if things go the way they did with the original books, then there will be more and more with each new novel released on Pottermore.
At this point, these ideas are just speculation on the number 18,000 given to us when Pottermore was announced. However my mind can’t help but wander at the possibilities of more information from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. However with all this new information, what will happen to the books? Will there be a Special Pottermore Edition of the books with the new words slotted in? Most evidence points to no, but along with being a place to sell ebooks, is there a possibility Pottermore will become the one stop shop for official Harry merchandise? We’ll have to wait and see.
“Interactive Reading Experience” is what this new website is being called. However it’s fairly obviously the entire transcript of the first novel isn’t going to be available online for free. Instead there will be games and puzzles furnished with Rowling’s new content. Harry Potter fans are excited to finally find out which house they would be sorted into and which wand they would wield. They are looking forward to brewing potions and more. However I am skeptical as to what other puzzles Pottermore will have in store. The advantage of the first novel is that there is a lot to discover and a lot to find out. As soon as the second novel comes around, there isn’t as much to discover. I am both cautious and curious as to what little games I’ll have to play to read the new content. Needless to say, match two and tic-tac-toe with pictures of magical creatures will not put a smile on this wizard’s face.
I personally bought myself a fresh hardback copy of the Philosopher’s stone when I managed to be one of the one million users to gain early access to Pottermore before it’s official opening in October. I’m still waiting for my actual beta invite (like many others) but with my new book I’m ready for anything it has to throw at me. If I purchase a Kindle in the near future, chances are Pottermore is where I will have to go to get an electronic copy of the book. What this means for publishers and ebooks remains to be seen. However only Rowling’s star power as the world’s biggest living author could shake up the book and publishing industry sufficiently. I look forward to it all.
