Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been stubbornly resisting releasing digital versions of her best-selling series, even as e-book sales have continued to climb. In fact, it was just in December that Amazon reported the 3rd generation Kindle had surpassed Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" as the best selling product in the company's history. With Potter dethroned and the realization that file-sharing sites are crawling with illegal copies of her books (which have likely been scanned from paper copies and converted to digital format), it appears as though Rowling is seeing the light. Reports are circulating that she may finally be ready to green light digitizing her books. Of course the potential £100 million payday that an e-book version of Harry Potter could net the author will undoubtedly have some influence on her decision. With an estimated 450 million paper copies of the Harry Potter books currently in circulation, e-book retailers and e-reader manufacturers are anxiously awaiting the verdict, anticipating a significant sales spike in e-book and hardware sales once this holdout joins the digital age. According to Claire Squires, Director of the Sterling University Centre for International Publishing and Communication (as interviewed in The Scotsman), the release of Harry Potter in e-book format would be "akin to the Beatles allowing their music to be launched on iTunes."
The paperback version Harry Potter box set weighs in at 6.8 pounds, according to Amazon, while the hardcover version is a whopping 20.1 pounds. A Kindle 3, by contrast, tips the scales at 8.7 ounces. If everything comes to pass as suggested by Rowling's agent, Muggles everywhere will rejoice being able to avoid lugging around 800 page books for their Potter fix, instead storing all seven books in the series on a svelte, portable, e-reader.