When it opened to the public in 2012, the Pottermore website was seen as a publishing-industry gamechanger. Here was a high-profile example of an author making smart moves with her digital rights and launching a whole new interactive media experience for her avid fans.
Prior to Pottermore, Harry Potter ebooks were unavailable for purchase (at least legitimately); once Pottermore launched, ebooks could be purchased only through the site, cutting out Amazon and other online retailers. (In a unique arrangement envied by many, an Amazon customer selecting a Potter ebook would be passed along to Pottermore for the sale.) It was a one-of-a-kind example of selling direct to consumer (D2C) with retail arrangements that only someone with the marketing power of J.K. Rowling could be expected to create.
However, The Scotsman reported that Pottermore has “lost some of its lustre, with the company running up multi-million-pound losses and shedding a quarter of its staff”—apparently as a result of losing Sony as a partner. (Sony left the ebook retail business in 2014, and reportedly had accounted for a big chunk of Pottermore’s income until 2015.)
As surprising as the financial picture is, it’s not game over. Pottermore still enjoys 7,000–9,000 sign-ups every day; in fall 2015, the site underwent a formal relaunch and redesign. And, perhaps most importantly, the site is no longer insisting on being the exclusive retailer of Harry Potter ebooks—arrangements are coming into play to allow readers to buy them from many online retailers.
The Bookseller’s Lisa Campbell, who led The Bookseller’s revelation of the news (paywall), told The Scotsman, “The ebook market has moved at a fast pace between 2012 and 2015 and what might have worked when Pottermore was first established doesn’t necessarily work now.”
Bottom line: What is probably the world’s premiere book-based content-branding achievement—who hasn’t been touched by Harry Potter?—took a hit that was cloaked in invisibility until the company’s financial reports came to light. Ten staffers have left the company, but officials say new employees are being brought on in data analytics and copywriting for the revamped, mobile-friendly, high-content-production format. Authors are following the story not because they can all be Rowlings but because the health and capabilities of such a high-profile powerhouse reflect heavily on the industry as a whole.
Editor’s note: Pottermore later partnered with Warner Bros. and the site was rebranded as Wizarding World.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
