The decision to sell J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter DVD Boxset directly to consumers across all playback devices (assuming one can not conclude the necessary agreements that, given the stakes, it seems inevitable) is an agreement in very nearly all way. Rowling has sold 450 million worldwide to date books in seventy languages, 7 billion in sales, according to the Wall Street Journal. This is just the beginning of what is sure to be a sustainable demand for the series, young readers as they reach the age when they embark on the fate that so delighted the first generation to meet the seven books Rowling launched to the increasing popularity and excitement.

Rowling is so formidable a force that booksellers, no matter how they react to Pottermore, can hardly risk downgrading their support for the printed series. In fact, on the day that Rowling made her announcement, Barnes & Noble linked to her video as part of its promotion of the series Harry Potter 1-7 dvd and highlighted, as they now do in every way, the B&N Nook. But however the Pottermore distribution model eventually turns out, it is another giant step in the transformation of the book business. The most recent major survey of adult readers, conducted by the Pew Internet Project, showed that the numbers with an e-book reader had doubled from 6 percent to 12 percent in six months from November 2010 to May 2011. As an interesting aside, the increase in tablet ownership has been significantly slower.