Pottermore
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|---|---|
| Web project on JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels. E-book shop | |
| languages | English |
| operator | Pottermore Limited |
| editorial staff | JKRowling , Neil Blair |
| Registration | optional |
| On-line | June 2011 (currently active) |
| https://www.pottermore.com/ | |
Pottermore is a website of JK Rowling , on the articles and interactive content about the world around Harry Potter will be published. It also includes a sales platform for e-books and audiobooks from the seven Harry Potter novels.
Pottermore allowed one million fans to register early for a week starting July 31, 2011, the birthday of JK Rowling (and the main character Harry Potter). After a long beta phase, Pottermore has been open to the public since April 14, 2012. On September 22, 2015 the website was completely renewed and realigned. It is free to use.
Pottermore 2011-2015
Emergence
Pottermore was conceived for two years by the British digital agency TH_NK and developed in collaboration with Sony . A website announcing the project appeared in June 2011. This website contained a link to a Youtube channel that contained a countdown. From June 15, several Harry Potter fan sites published geographic data that could be entered on a page created by JK Rowling and integrated into Google Maps , revealing the letters of the name of their new project. On June 23, Rowling revealed details about Pottermore in a YouTube video.
In the week between July 31st and August 6th 2011 there was the possibility to register as a beta tester before the official start . Each day a riddle was posted on the Pottermore site, which in turn affected one of the seven volumes. The puzzle always appeared at a different time, and around 143,000 fans every day had the chance to become one of the million beta testers.
Originally announced for October 2011, the launch of the full version of the website has been postponed several times. As of November 2, 2011, the site went offline for an indefinite period of time to fix bugs and improve the site. On December 14th, 2011 the site went online again, with the change that dueling was now possible. On April 14, 2012 Pottermore was opened to all users.
Content
Users were able to experience all seven Harry Potter books interactively and "follow" the protagonists through the chapters, starting with the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . Among other things, you could visit Diagon Alley , where you could buy various items with virtual money (galleons) and receive a magic wand. In the further course, the player was divided into one of the four houses of Hogwarts ( Gryffindor , Slytherin , Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw ), learned spells, was able to duel with other users of the platform and brew potions. Pottermore was then available in six languages, including German.
Many book chapters were broken down into so-called “moments” - locations, games or other interactive implementations of the most important scenes of the respective chapter, which often came with hidden rewards (for example in the form of potion ingredients or exclusive material from JK Rowling). In total, more than 18,000 words of additional content and previously unknown background information and notes should be made available by the author.
By acting in the moments, but also interactions with other users in the “virtual Hogwarts”, house points and galleons were collected. The house cup was awarded twice a year and the house points were then canceled again. Pottermore developed more and more in the direction of a social network (including the possibility to post messages, upload pictures, and "like" messages and objects). A big difference to the well-known social networks, however, was that user names cannot be real names, but were assigned randomly. In mid-April 2015, all comment functions were discontinued, the reason for this being child protection measures and moderation that consumed too many resources. As a result, it was no longer possible to “chat”, upload pictures and make comments from this point on. A year earlier, in April 2014, Pottermore had ended the "successful" cooperation with Sony.
Shortly before the site was changed on September 22, 2015, users were given the opportunity to print out a certificate stating the Hogwarts house, the magic wand and the number of house points earned.
Pottermore from September 2015
On September 11, 2015, Pottermore announced major changes. Then, on September 22nd, the website was completely revamped, removing most of the interactive content, including the ability to interactively experience the books, dueling, potion brewing, and the Hogwarts house and wand association. Instead, they offer a collection of texts and articles about the world of Harry Potter. A professional journalist, the "Pottermore Correspondent", has been hired who not only publishes new content (such as interviews) but also processes the content of the books and films. The focus is particularly on the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child . JK Rowling continues to publish exclusive material for Pottermore from time to time, such as the Potter family , foreign wizarding schools or the history of magic in North America , and the texts from the old page have been carried over. All content is now only available in English.
On January 28, 2016, it was again possible to be assigned to a Hogwarts house and a magic wand, and later even to a house of the American wizarding school Ilvermorny.
Shop
The Pottermore shop opened on March 27, 2012. It is an independent platform for which Pottermore users also have to register again. Here you can purchase e-books and audio books in different languages. The Pottermore shop was initially the exclusive seller of the Harry Potter e-books, so Amazon, for example, forwarded a corresponding search query to Pottermore. At the end of 2015, the e-books and audio books got new covers and can now be sold by other retailers. In 2016 the Pottermore shop was greatly improved.
reception
The Pottermore project has received worldwide attention since the day it was first announced. The magazine Wired called the publication of the site a "Radiohead moment" , alluding to the band Radiohead , which in 2007 their album In Rainbows with no record label published on the Internet. In a similarly revolutionary way, Rowling made himself independent of her publisher, which could be a forward-looking concept for authors. Since the website was announced, there has been discussion about the impact this type of e-book publication will have on the publishers Bloomsbury Publishing and Scholastic , the Warner Bros. group and sales platforms such as Amazon.com .
The spokesman for the British bookseller chain Waterstone’s Jon Howells said he was "disappointed that we have been excluded from selling the long-awaited e-book edition". The trade journal of the German book trade, the Börsenblatt , judges the trend towards self-marketing of digital content by authors, bypassing traditional sales via publishers and retailers, as critical. Joachim Kaufmann, managing director of the Carlsen Verlag , which published the German Harry Potter editions, adds in relative terms : “A success like Harry Potter is absolutely unique, and accordingly unique is the strength of the brand and the associated opportunity to address fans directly. "
British daily The Guardian analyzed the marketing strategy behind Pottermore and criticized JK Rowling's attempt to portray the creation of a platform to market their products as a selfless act. Rowling had previously said she wanted to give something back to her loyal fans through Pottermore.
Individual evidence
- ↑ About Pottermore . Pottermore website. Retrieved August 15, 2011
- ↑ Sales of e-books and audiobooks . Pottermore website. Retrieved August 15, 2011
- ^ TH_NK ( Memento from March 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved August 15, 2011
- ↑ a b https://www.youtube.com/JKRowlingAnnounces ( Memento from June 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ We're opening to everyone ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , In: Pottermore Insider , accessed April 14, 2012
- ↑ Pottermore site updates. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 4, 2015 ; accessed on July 5, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Pottermore is an online reading experience . Pottermore website. Retrieved August 15, 2011
- ↑ Pottermore: Major website updates. In: harrypotter-xperts.de. April 28, 2015, accessed June 24, 2015 .
- ↑ Pottermore ends “successful” partnership with Sony. April 11, 2014, accessed July 18, 2016 .
- ^ Pottermore to launch reimagined website featuring news, commentary and insights about JK Rowling's Wizarding World. In: www.pottermore.com. Pottermore, September 11, 2015, accessed July 15, 2016 .
- ^ Pottermore launches as the digital heart of the Wizarding World, with new writing by JK Rowling about the origins of the Potter family. In: www.pottermore.com. Pottermore, September 22, 2015, accessed July 15, 2016 .
- ^ Sorting returns to Pottermore. In: www.pottermore.com. Pottermore, January 28, 2016, accessed July 15, 2016 .
- ↑ Pottermore - New Ilvermorny writing and Sorting Ceremony by JK Rowling now on Pottermore. In: www.pottermore.com. Pottermore, accessed July 15, 2016 .
- ↑ With 'Harry Potter,' Publishing Finally Has Its 'Radiohead Moment' , Wired , June 23, 2011
- ↑ What Pottermore means for Warner, Bloomsbury and other stakeholders ( Memento of the original from August 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Wired, June 23, 2011
- ↑ Harry Potter And "Pottermore" Could Force Amazon To Open Up The Kindle , Business Insider, June 23, 2011
- ↑ Pottermore.com: Rowling bundles new Potter adventure world on its own website / British book trade disappointed , Book Market , June 24, 2011
- ↑ Harry Potter on the digital leash in: Börsenblatt, weekly magazine for the book trade, August 18, 2011, pages 16-18
- ↑ Pottermore gives away JK Rowling's marketing genius The Guardian , June 23, 2011
