Harry Potter e-books go on sale

Downloadiarmus

Fans of JK Rowling's student sorcerer will be pleased to know the Pottermore Shop - the only place to buy Harry Potter e-books and audio books - is now open for business.

It may be behind times in terms of e-commerce - the last book was published nearly five years ago - but Rowling's seven novels have finally made it into the digital domain.

The e-books start at a fiver and come in the popular ePub format, compatible with most e-book readers and tablets. They're also available in Amazon's Kindle format.

We're hearing the titles are offered unencumbered by DRM. They're advertised as being compatible with Apple's iBooks app, even though iTunes is not a launch partner. That suggests to us that Apple hasn't licensed its Fairplay DRM tech, so the iBooks versions of the Potter series, at least, are unprotected.

That said, the Pottermore site itself is quiet on the matter.

It was also throwing up frequent web server errors, suggesting fans of the boy wizard - or maybe Death Eaters with a grudge - are hammering the site.

If you'd like to help expand the sales of an already multi-billion pound franchise, and make Ms Rowling yet richer still, then follow the Quaffle to the Pottermore Shop and cast your finance spells over the digital offerings. ®