In a recent presentation at a London Book Fair conference, Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne discussed a lot of different topics to do with Harry Potter, JK Rowling and mainly Pottermore.
Among many interesting points, one of the most notable things he said was that the next books after Philosopher’s Stone would be released “over the next few weeks and months”. He also says the site is “currently very limited… not amazing yet” but will get “better and better” as more books and content are made available.
Listen to the whole thing right here:
Here is a summary thanks to Hypable.com:
- Pottermore is separated into 2 parts: the Pottermore experience and the Pottermore shop.
- J.K. Rowling created a deep and broad world, and the books are only a ‘very narrow corridor’ of the world of Harry Potter.
- 97% of beta users looked at every single page of the site and content.
- Average Pottermore user spent (spends) 47 minutes on the site.
- When Charlie came on board, there was massive re-platforming that needed to be done. The site needed to adapt to the large amount of traffic it would be receiving.
- Chose the time of 8:15am GMT to open the site very quietly, with most of America and UK still in bed on a Saturday morning. The CEO had a quick chat with the booksellers, then let the press-release go out.
- New books in line over the next few weeks and months.
- Fans mostly come to the site to read J.K. Rowling’s new content
- A lot more functionalities – like wizard dueling – are to come
- Over the next few weeks they will be switching their focus from platform issues to content issues, in which the site is going to get ‘incredibly exciting’ and his job will become ‘much more exciting’. He also commented that the site will get ‘better and better and better’
- Over the coming weeks you will see more of J.K. Rowling’s content and books ‘fly by’
- New interactives and community functionalities will be added in the coming weeks as well.
- Redmayne commented that he although he thought Pottermore isn’t amazing yet like the books, films and games are, the site needs to be amazing, and shall be.
- Could be seeing ‘enhanced’ ebooks coming down the line in the next year. Redmayne wants the shop to become the ‘essential hub for all things Harry Potter’
- He is constantly thinking about a digital future for Harry Potter on all platforms – tablets, phones, etc. He thinks that they should be thinking about what they can do on Facebook and YouTube
Also, it was announced today that the official Harry Potter e-books, sold only via Pottermore, are now available in more languages – German, Italian, Spanish and French.