It's here! JK Rowling announces 'Pottermore'

London: Ending fevered speculation among fans about what comes next, Harry Potter creator JK Rowling unveiled her latest venture, Pottermore, on Thursday. Having announced a new website (www.pottermore.com), the British author had kept its contents a closely guarded secret, giving previews to just a handful of the biggest fan sites who have been sworn to silence. [caption id=“attachment_30357” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Rowling gave her clearest indication yet that she would not write an eighth Harry Potter story.  Jens Norgaard Larsen/Reuters”]  [/caption] The seven Harry Potter novels will be available in ebook form in October, Rowling said at the launch of the new interactive online website (www.pottermore.com) that will allow readers to navigate through the boy wizard stories. Rowling gave her clearest indication yet that she would not write an eighth Harry Potter story to follow the final instalment published in 2007 by Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the United States. “I do have closure with Harry,” Rowling told reporters in London at the launch of www.pottermore.com. “I have no plans to write another novel. I’m pretty sure I’m done on the novel front … But it was fun while it lasted.” The ebooks will be exclusively available on the Pottermore site from October in several languages. They will be available on all major electronic reading devices. “It is my view you can’t hold back progress,” Rowling said of the electronic launch. “Ebooks are here and here to stay. Later than a lot of people, I for the first time downloaded ebooks and it’s miraculous for travel and for children in particular. I feel great about taking Harry into this new medium.” What many Potter fans would like most would be an eighth novel to follow on from the seventh and “final” instalment “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” published in 2007. But Rowling’s publicist has already made clear that it would not involve a new book. The seven-novel series has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide, and, along with the blockbuster movie franchise, turned Rowling into the world’s wealthiest writer. The announcement comes just a few weeks ahead of the theatrical release on July 15 of the eighth and final Harry Potter film which will be shown in 3D. The seven movies released so far have grossed $6.4 billion in ticket sales. Reuters