WOW! That is some update!!! Amazon, man, I certainly didn’t see that coming!
Given Amazon’s past marketing of the HP books, and the fact that visiting the site will presumably lure in more buyers to Amazon, it makes sense. But man I am surprised!
I think this is good for HP fans because, as Amazon will be doing editorial reviews on the stories and so we will get some information on them, I think this increases the chance that Jo will decide to publish the stories in their entirety.
Part of me is excited that Amazon bought it, because now we will get more information about the book. Another part of me is disapointed. I liked the romantic notion that some rich adult out there was so in love with Potter that they were willing to spend almost $4 Million on it. Still, the most important thing is that all of this money went to charity.
When asked if Amazon would be publishing the book, the Amazon rep replied (naturally, but there’s some nice stuff here too):
“The copy of the book that Amazon purchased at today’s auction is a unique limited-edition manuscript, hand-written and hand-illustrated by the author. At this point, J.K. Rowling has not published these stories for distribution. Of course, if and when they are published, we’d certainly hope to be able to offer them to our customers. However, we will have editorial reviews of the 5 stories available on the web site, along with a discussion board.
We also plan on taking the book on tour to libraries and schools so that kids can get a look at the magic in the Bard’s own handwriting.”
The CEO of Amazon (“whatzhizname??”) has long recognized the good business sense of marketing the HP books at a discount, with first day delivery, etc. And, my guess is he might be a closet fan as well (or at least have kids that are!). Nice touch putting the book on tour…. both a nice gesture, and (somewhat cynical sounding but…) good pre-publication publicity too.
Yep, I agree roonwit, this should increase the chances of reading them ourselves
Besides Snape’s book, I’d like to see The History Of Magic…
What a gorgeous book. I wish I had a journal like that.
Honestly, it’s great that this money is being donated to charity, but it went to a company? There could have been one person out there who really deserved it. Of course, I hope we get to see these stories someday, but until then, thank you Amazon for being so generous.
Wow, Amazon. I wonder what motivated them to buy it. The above suggestions about publicity and website visits make sense, I suppose. My first thought was that they wanted to digitize it and make it available in electronic form, because that’s what Amazon seems to be excited about recently. But I don’t suppose that would be legal without JKR’s express permission. As it is, I hope they don’t get into legal trouble for publicizing too many photographs. (Not that I know anything about that sort of law.)
budb, what’s the source for the quotation you gave? Or is it from your own personal correspondence?
Amazon! That’s awesome!!! And they’re going to take it on tour! Even better (perhaps) then having my own massproduced copy, is to see the original in “the bards own handwriting”. amazing.
Arthimancer, if you go to the amazon site, http://www.amazon.com/beedlebard , view the images posted and scroll down the bottom, the very first question was “will Amazon be publishing?”—its the official response there
That is fabulous!!! I love that Amazon bought it! And they are so great to share photos with the fans! And a tour! Thank you, Amazon! Nicely done.
I am grateful to hear that Amazon won the auction and is willing to be this open about the book. We couldn’t have asked for a better party to obtain this!
I do admire Amazon’s efforts with regard to reading, whether it be introducing the Kindle or this. They do deserve to be congratulated for all the work they are doing on behalf of literature.
we should all have such problems, Glenn. ;-| Good one!
Duffy, don’t forget Hogwarts, A History!