In a post on its blog, OverDrive officials this week said that they have “temporarily suspended” pre-sales and displays of Harry Potter e-books and digital audiobooks for library lending. While there was no official word on the Pottermore site, OverDrive officials said the postponement was “part of the process of coordinating launch plans” with Pottermore. “We’re working with Pottermore to introduce this compelling series,” the post reads. “This is only a postponement, and libraries will soon be able to resume pre-ordering the titles in preparation for launch in April.”
In late February, OverDrive announced an agreement with Pottermore, J.K. Rowling's officials site for Harry Potter e-books, to distribute digital audiobook and e-books to public and school libraries. Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne said Pottermore was “keen to support public and school libraries,” and pre-orders for all seven books in the series were available to libraries, with all orders placed before March 31 coming with a 10% discount.
While OverDrive says the program will resume, the news can’t be good for libraries in light of recent drawbacks from e-book lending, such as Penguin, who suspended its e-book lending at the end of 2011, only to withdraw fully from the library e-book market a month later.
