As of July, the 50 Shades trilogy had sold 20 million copies in the United States, with sales roughly split between print and digital formats.

The Bookseller says that 50 Shades of Grey has sold 3.8 million copies in print according to Nielsen BookScan, which would suggest 1.5 million ebooks sold. (An earlier version of this article suggested that those were the actual sales figures, but Random House UK would not confirm them.) That actually means it’s sold fewer print copies than J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which sold 4 million copies in print. The Harry Potter ebooks were not available until this year, and Rowling is selling them separately through her own website, Pottermore.com — so we don’t yet have a comparable figure for how many  copies a single Harry Potter title has sold in both print and digital formats. (I’ve asked Pottermore if they can share any information.)

E.L. James published the 50 Shades trilogy with a small Australian publisher before the rights were snapped up by Random House on both sides of the Atlantic in April. The books started out as Twilight fan fiction posted in full on FF.net. The three ebooks had sold over 250,000 copies together and hit the top spots on the New York Times ebook fiction bestseller list before Random House bought the rights. Random House UK is not including those 250,000 copies in its overall sales figure. It’s unclear if Random House UK is including those earlier ebook sales in its figure, and I’ve asked for clarification.

Separately, Amazon announced this week that E.L. James is “the #1 bestselling author of all time at Amazon.co.uk, eclipsing J.K. Rowling’s total sales.” Amazon said James has sold over two million ebooks at Amazon UK since April.

»  Pottermore.com’s Biggest Losers (Plus One Surprise Winner)

»  Three Ways Pottermore.com Could Change Book Publishing

»  Pottermore.com Is Exclusive, Interactive Harry Potter E-Bookstore

»  Rowling Rep Confirms Leaked Pottermore.com Memo Is Real, Not A Stunt

»  Leaked Memo: Harry Potter Site Pottermore.com Appears To Be Online Game

The rest can be found in our Pottermore.com archive.

Pottermore.com: The Losers

– Apple: Pottermore.com is also going to be the exclusive place to buy Harry Potter digital audiobooks–which are currently sold on iTunes. The Financial Times reports that those editions “will be removed and sold solely on the Pottermore site when it opens to the public in October, people familiar with the business said. As a result, Ms. Rowling’s audio sales contract with Apple will in effect be terminated, the sources confirmed.”

– Amazon: As we mentioned yesterday, Pottermore.com is not a good thing for Amazon. Amazon currently does not support EPUB, the format in which the Harry Potter e-books will most likely be released. But if they want Kindle owners to be able to read Harry Potter, they will have to add EPUB support despite the fact that they stand to make no money from the sales of the e-books because Rowling is selling them directly. It’s not a great position for Amazon, which says its goal is to make the Kindle Store “the best bookstore in the world,” in the words of Jeff Bezos at the Amazon shareholders meeting earlier this month. Bezos described this as a “straightforward,” “simple-minded” approach that “seems like what our customers would want.” Well, Kindle owners will definitely want to be able to read the Harry Potter e-books, and Amazon risks losing market share to the Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) Nook, Kobo and other e-readers that support EPUB if for some reason it takes a stand against Pottermore.com.

It almost definitely won’t. It’s been rumored for awhile that Amazon is going to begin supporting EPUB this fall, and luckily for them, Pottermore.com doesn’t start selling e-books until October. That gives Amazon plenty of time to, for instance, launch a new Kindle that just happens to support the format (the Kindle tablet, perhaps?) and to then roll EPUB out to older Kindles as well.

– Bookstores everywhere: Booksellers are, to put it mildly, not happy that they’re being completely cut out of this deal. The Bookseller has reactions from a range of UK booksellers, which tend to go something like this: “It’s another madness of the digital publishing world that doesn’t support the booksellers that have sold the books and supported them. It’s just another step on the path to death by 1,000 cuts” (Tom Hunt, Norfolk Children’s Book Centre). A spokesperson for Waterstone’s said the chain is “disappointed that, having been a key factor in the growth of the Harry Potter phenomenon since the first book was published, the book trade is effectively banned from selling the long-awaited e-book editions of the series.” Meanwhile, in the U.S., Roxanne Coady, the owner of leading independent bookstore R. J. Julia told the AP, “Bricks and mortar stores are taking a lot of bullets and there’s a limit to how many bullets we can take.”

There could still be a silver lining for booksellers here: Renewed interest in Harry Potter may spur sales of the physical books and associated merchandise.

And one surprise winner…

– Sony: Sony (NYSE: SNE) has partnered with Pottermore.com to provide interactive technology for the site. In addition to the revenue Sony gets from the joint venture, this could be a boon for the company’s beleaguered e-readers, which hold minuscule market share and are currently out-of-date, overpriced, and on the whole worse than competitors’ less expensive offerings. The FT reports that Sony is “developing related products, including a themed version of its Sony reader.” Who knows if anyone wants a special Harry Potter e-reader, but this could be an opportunity to reach out in particular to younger kids who might like that sort of thing. (I’m thinking magic wand stylus…) And no major brand currently offers an e-reader aimed specifically at children.

Plus, take our poll: Are you going to buy the Harry Potter e-books?

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) will be cut out as the middleman and could be forced to open up the Kindle to new book-publishing formats. Pottermore.com does not officially launch until October, and right now many details are still unclear. But we know that the site will be the only place to buy Harry Potter e-books and that they will be compatible with a range of devices. Rowling stressed that selling the books directly “means we can guarantee people everywhere are getting the same experience and at the same time,” and Pottermore CEO Rod Henwood told The Bookseller, “We want to make sure anyone who buys it can read it on any device. We are talking to the Kindles, the Apples, the Googles, Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) to make sure they are compatible. We set the pricing, we maintain the policy of making them available to as many readers as possible.”

We don’t know if that means that Pottermore.com will be selling multiple editions of the Harry Potter books–in the Kindle format, say, alongside formats like EPUB–but it seems more likely that the site would sell e-books in just one format, probably EPUB. Right now, the Kindle doesn’t support the EPUB format. But if any author could get Amazon to change its policy, it’s J. K. Rowling. The Kindle has the largest market share of any e-reader in the U.S.–it’s believed to be between 60 and 65 percent–and it would be an incredibly dumb move for Amazon not to allow the Harry Potter e-books to be read on its device. The company would risk losing users to the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Kobo, and other devices that do support EPUB.

In fact, rumors that Amazon is going to start supporting EPUB have been floating around for awhile now, mainly in association with the news that the Kindle will support library lending this fall. Amazon should probably get on the EPUB train by July 31, when Pottermore.com is going to be opened up to a select million users.

Interesting experiments with pricing. Since Rowling is selling the e-books directly, she can do what she wants with pricing. Her UK publisher, Bloomsbury, and her U.S. publisher, Scholastic, are getting a cut, but these books are being published under the Pottermore Publishing imprint, not by Bloomsbury or Scholastic. So look out for bundling, limited-time sales, special editions, maybe even individual chapters for sale. Pottermore.com has a lot of freedom here to test various prices and respond quickly to what works or doesn’t. Other publishers can learn from what Pottermore.com does and may start to become more creative in their own pricing, although the big six publishers, which use the agency model for pricing, aren’t able to be nearly as nimble as an indie like Pottermore Publishing can.

Most importantly, this could be a major tipping point for e-books. The first book Harry Potter book was published in 1997–over a decade ago. Kids who were too young for the books when they were first published–who were, say, four or five in 2007 when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series, was released–are just the right age for the e-book editions in 2011.

And, of course, the series has always exhibited massive crossover appeal between kids and adults. Adults who never read the books the first time around might try them as e-books, and audiences who’ve read them already may still want to own the digital versions, particularly since Rowling is writing new material for the e-books. A new generation of kids ready for Harry Potter, a group of adults who’ve never read the series before, and all the people who are fans already and want to read the books again in a new format–that is potentially a group of millions of buyers for the e-books on Pottermore.com. Combine that massive audience with falling e-reader prices and the release of the books near the holiday season and Pottermore.com could absolutely move the needle toward widespread e-reader adoption in a way that no other series possibly could.

In an announcement this morning, and in this video on YouTube, J. K. Rowling said, “I’m thrilled to say that I am now in a position to give you something unique: An online reading experience unlike any other. It’s called Pottermore. It’s the same story with a few crucial additions. The most important one is you…

“The digital generation will be able to enjoy a safe, unique online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books. Pottermore will be the place where fans of any age can share, participate in, and rediscover stories. It will also be the exclusive place to purchase digital audiobooks and, for the first time, e-books of the Harry Potter series. I’ll be joining in too, because I will be sharing additional information I’ve been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter. Pottermore is open to everyone from October, but a lucky few can enter early and help shape the experience. Simply follow the owl. Good luck.”

The site will launch fully in October, but will be open to a million early users on July 31. Fans are instructed to come back to the site that day to find out how to get the chance to enter Pottermore early. (Getting back into full speculation mode, the selection process could have something to do with the Quill Quest mentioned in yesterday’s leaked memo. Or maybe the memo, despite what PR reps said, really was just a stunt.) Though the e-books will be available only through Pottermore.com, they’ll be compatible with devices including the Kindle, The Bookseller reports. That would suggest that Rowling has made a deal with Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), since until now it has only sold Kindle books through its own Kindle store. But if there’s any author that Amazon would let dictate the terms, it’s Rowling.

Rowling said that she didn’t want to restrict e-books to a particular device. Selling the e-books directly through Pottermore, she said, “means we can guarantee people everywhere are getting the same experience and at the same time. I am personally lucky to have the resources to do it myself and I could do it, I think, right. I could find the right people and take my time. There was no other option for the fans or for me.”

Digital distributor OverDrive is providing the e-book platform. Rowling’s UK publisher, Bloomsbury, will receive a share of the e-book revenues, The Bookseller says. Presumably Scholastic, the U.S. publisher, is also getting a cut.

More to come!

Hutchinson’s firm, Mark Hutchinson Management, handles PR for J. K. Rowling and Pottermore.com in collaboration with another firm, StonehillSalt PR. Hutchinson told us in an e-mail that the memo was old and was mistakenly sent out by a staff member at StonehillSalt. He said that Colman Getty, the PR agency mentioned in the memo (below), was not responsible. Colman Getty handles J. K. Rowling’s Lumos charity.

“Much as we would like to say this is an elaborate stunt to create excitement, I’m afraid it was a simple error,” Hutchinson said. “The document is an old plan which is now out of date. The full details about the Pottermore project will be revealed at the press conference tomorrow.”

London marketing agency Adam & Eve also confirmed to us that it is handling the marketing campaign for Pottermore.com.

Here’s the memo.

Confidential

Project Momentum: A PR timeline

The following timeline has been drafted to complement and build on the launch marketing strategy from Adam & Eve.

As the number of people in the know about the project increases, so does the possibility of a leak. In the event of the news breaking early, Colman Getty will draft and issue an instant statement to tie in with the ‘coming soon’ online message.

We would like as a priority to draft and start getting agreement on the key messages. We also want to identity and brief the key spokespeople from each of the project partners so that we are prepared, should the story leak.

However, assuming that the news does hold until we are ready to announce it, our suggested timeline is as follows:

End June/early July – Jo announces the launch on YouTube
CG will issue a global press release to coincide. This will cover the excitement of the news plus why the site is being launched, who the project partners are and what users can expect to find, with a particular emphasis on the Quill Quest

We will also make sure that the same info is simultaneously posted on Jo’s official site, referring users to Pottermore

From July to October
Colman Getty will handle media enquiries and consider other opportunities for coverage eg the beginning of the school holidays, the back to school stage. We will also issue facts and figures as the project unfolds – eg the level of demand for the site, how many people have actually enrolled, how many wands have been physically laced and found. We need, however, to avoid issuing too much information and possibly overbuilding expectations. Best to leave most of the news spreading to the fans themselves.

October
Again we feel that the overt PR input should be kept to the minimum with the fans and the site itself creating most of the headlines. We love the idea of a Daily Prophet wrap and would be happy to broker that deal with the paper of our choice, both in the UK and the US. It’s such a fantastic story that we feel it should not be paid for but placed as unpaid editorial.

Colman Getty, December 2010

The Times UK reports (paywall) that it has received an official marketing memo, apparently by mistake, talking about the project in more detail. The paper says the memo “suggests that [Pottermore.com] is a sophisticated online game that contains clues to prizes that are hidden in the real world. These are an unstated number of magic wands secreted in Britain and America, and possibly other countries.”

Pottermore.com is supposed to be officially announced tomorrow. The Times UK notes that it is “not clear whether the treasure hunt is Pottermore itself, or merely a marketing drive for another product,” and it is also unclear whether the memo was actually accidentally leaked or is simply a savvy marketing ploy.

Given the playfulness and secrecy surrounding the unveiling of Pottermore.com, it is very possible that this “leak” was orchestrated by the people behind the new venture. Another British newspaper, The Independent, has a story today reporting that it and other UK newspapers have also received an apparently confidential memo talking about the strategy for the site’s launch, including the timeline for press releases, who will handle media inquiries, and the plan for daily promotion around the new site.

Warner Brothers trademarked Pottermore.com on July 23, 2009, and offered some detail about its plans. Here’s the original trademark:

Providing multiple-user access to a global computer information network; providing on-line chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among users in the field of general interest; providing on-line communications links which transfer the web site user to other local and global web pages; providing on-line facilities for real-time interaction with other computer users concerning topics of general interest

The company subsequently filed for a trademark on a boatload of other products, including “on-line retail store services featuring prerecorded audio books [and] electronic books,” but everything from crayons to cellphone covers are also listed, so WB could just be covering its bases.

However, the original trademark has led to speculation that Pottermore.com could be an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). The possibilities of such a game being in development have been rumored since 2008, possibly in association with Turbine, a Warner Bros.-owned company that made MMO games like Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. And The Guardian suggested Pottermore is an acronym: “Potter Multiplayer Online Role-playing Experience.”

Some of the editors of the most popular Harry Potter fansites–those that were part of Rowling’s scavenger hunt to reveal the letters in Pottermore–also got to preview the site. “Leaky has seen a preview of Pottermore and it is breathtaking,” wrote The Leaky Cauldron, while HPANA said the site was “breathtaking in scope, detail and sheer beauty.”

Click on the owls and you’re brought to a YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) page titled “J.K. Rowling’s Announcement,” with a countdown clock to an announcement that (as of this writing) is 6 days, 11 hours, 26 minutes, and 54 seconds away. “The owls are gathering…” says the text under the video. “Find out why soon.”

Other than that, details are basically nonexistent, which probably makes Rowling’s new venture only that much more intriguing to Harry Potter obsessives. Rowling has confirmed only the following to the AP: The site is “not a new book” and “not directly related” to the upcoming movie.

Yesterday Rowling sent fans on a scavenger hunt leading them to the new site: She sent coordinates to ten Harry Potter fan sites. The coordinates had to be entered at another website, secretstreetview.com, which uses Google Maps technology. After fans collected all ten coordinates, they could zoom in on them to reveal the letters of Pottermore. “Even though this is not a new book, we have been informed it is something equally exciting,” wrote Mugglenet, one of the fan sites providing coordinates.

Rowling also launched a Pottermore Twitter account, which has already gained nearly 35,000 followers in roughly negative five minutes.

There’s also a Pottermore Facebook page that is unaffiliated with the official project but that contains three screenshots purported to be from the upcoming site. “This editor has seen a sneak preview and it is breathtaking in scope, detail and beauty,” writes the page’s creator. The images, which could absolutely be fake but are quite detailed, show a library with bookshelves, a bookstore storefront, and a larger shelf with books on it. Here are the images:

Fans at Chamber of Secrets, a Harry Potter message board, are analyzing the images and are particularly interested in the “Encyclopaedia” link that appears in a navigation bar at the top of each; the blurred Harry Potter covers; and the notion of writing tutorials and a writing competition for fans. There’s also a link for a “Shop.” “GAHHH ebooks!!!!” one fan wrote on the Facebook page.

The fan reaction reveals a pent-up demand for an increased official Harry Potter presence online. While J.K. Rowling has her own website and Scholastic and Warner Bros. have Harry Potter pages, those sites really don’t come close to offering the interactive, slightly obsessive experiences that other mega-bestselling authors, like Rick Riordan and James Patterson, have created for their books.

In addition, the Harry Potter series has never been released as e-books. Rowling holds the digital rights to the books and has declined to exercise them for years, which has seemed, well, insane–but it makes a lot more sense if she’s been planning to launch her own e-initiative all along.

The Scotsman reported in April that Rowling was finally “actively considering” e-book plans, and most took that to mean that she was considering selling the digital rights (in a move that could potentially increase her net worth by hundreds of millions of dollars). But it’s possible she has even bigger plans for the e-books. We may have an answer in a little over 6 days.

YOD — which bills itself as “HBO before Showtime” in terms of its exclusivity and singularity in the market — says it has yet to line up any cable operators with which to partner to offer the service.

But such is the hype and potential of the large Chinese market — there are 200 million households to target — that YOD notes in its release that “based on conversations going on” with providers, it expects to have a footprint of around three million subscribers — on par with Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) in the U.S. — by the end of this year.

It also helps that YOD is entering China under a 20-year exclusive contract from the government to run national VoD services. Like other foreign companies entering the Chinese market, it will do this via a joint venture — in this case with the Chinese broadcaster CCTV-6 and its pay-TV arm, China Home Cinema.

Under the terms of the deal, Warner — the studio that is behind such mega-blockbusters as the Harry Potter series — will start delivering titles in the Chinese market by this summer. It has not yet said how many titles, and which ones, will be the first to go live.

To entice users, YOD claims that the films will be sold for the same price that people would typically pay for a pirated version of the same film. Of course, they won’t get to keep a physical DVD to watch again and again, or resell to others.

And it remains to be seen whether this move is too little, too late in a market now overrun with a multitude of ways of getting to see movies, either by buying those pesky pirated DVDs or via many routes online. (One of the potentially most interesting, Xunlei, which counts the CEO of News Corp. (NSDQ: NWS), Rupert Murdoch, as an investor, is preparing for an IPO in the U.S. Read our story on that here.)

And there are other VoD plays already underway in the country. DOXTV works with NDS to roll out push VoD services in specific regions; the latest was with the China Cable Network in Hainan province. Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures also tells us that it has had VoD deals in place in China since 2005.

Still, it’s a sign of how slow moving the film industry really is — and how frustratingly closed the Chinese market can be — considering that it has taken this long to iron out a legitimate national VoD deal for such a booming market like China. The news was timed to coincide with a visit from the MPAA chairman Christopher Dodd — the first visit he has ever made to China.

YOD rebranded from its original name of China Broadband in January 2011, although it is still publicly traded under the ticker CBBD in the U.S. Last week, Fidelity Hong Kong took an equity stake in the company. YOD also plans to have a Nasdaq listing later this year.