OverDrive Announces Exclusive Deal to Distribute Harry Potter eBooks to Public and School Libraries

From an OverDrive Announcement:

Pottermore, home of the Harry Potter eBooks created by J.K. Rowling and partnered by Sony, announced today it has entered into an exclusive worldwide eBook and digital audiobook distribution agreement with OverDrive for public and school libraries.  Under the terms of the agreement, OverDrive will manage hosting and digital fulfillment for libraries for the Harry Potter collection of eBooks and digital audiobooks in English and more than 20 other languages to OverDrive’s network of over 18,000 public and school libraries worldwide.
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Charlie Redmayne, Pottermore CEO, said:

“We are keen to support public and school libraries, and OverDrive, as one of the leading suppliers in this market, provides us with a global network that helps us achieve this, as well as encouraging the discovery of these amazing books across the world.”

OverDrive CEO and President Steve Potash said:

“J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter is a once-a-lifetime phenomenon and has been an extremely significant catalyst for reading and literacy for current and future generations.  We are honoured to bring this beloved storytelling experience digitally to public and school libraries  worldwide.”

In keeping with Harry Potter’s international appeal, OverDrive will provide schools and libraries the ability to offer the official eBooks and digital audiobooks in many different languages – initially English, French, Italian, German and Spanish – with more languages to follow.

The Bookseller Includes this Comment from an OverDrive Official:

OverDrive director of marketing David Burleigh said the e-books and audiobooks are not yet available, though libraries and schools can pre-order them. The “go-live date” is to be announced, he said. Worldwide, the e-books will be available in ePub on PCs, Macs, Android devices, iPhones, iPads and Blackberries, plus reading devices including the Kindle and Nook, with Kindle support in the US only. The audiobooks will be available in MP3 format.

Also, as we pointed out last June, the OverDrive MIDAS e-book distribution platform will be used on Pottermore for all ebook sales.

Filed under: Libraries, Publishing, School Libraries