News

The seven Harry Potter novels will be available in ebook form in October, author J.K. Rowling said on Thursday at the launch of a new interactive online website Pottermore that will allow readers to navigate through the boy wizard stories.

The news comes as an unwelcome surprise for traditional bookstores, which helped Rowling sell hundreds of millions of the Potter novels. But, said the author, "It is my view you can''t hold back progress."

This is the clearest indication yet that she will not be writing an eighth Harry Potter story to follow the final instalment published in 2007 by Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the United States.

The ebooks will be exclusively available on the Pottermore site from October in several languages. They will be available on all major electronic reading devices.

"Pottermore" was trademarked in 2009 by Warner Bros., which distributes the Potter movies, though the site is not directly linked to the latest film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, which has its world premiere in London on July 7.

The trademark description suggests an interactive site "providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards" and "online facilities for real-time interaction with other computer users concerning topics of general interest."

"Ebooks are here and here to stay. Later than a lot of people, I for the first time downloaded ebooks and it''s miraculous for travel and for children in particular. I feel great about taking Harry into this new medium," added Rowling.

The news is a landmark for the growing electronic market. E-books accounted for 1% of total book sales four years ago. They now account for more than 20%.