One of the biggest selling Authors in Australia has decided to snub the bookshop industry by bypassing physical book stores to sell her latest Harry Potter creation’s online using a new eBook format.Harry Potter mastermind J.K. Rowling has taken the digital plunge, by launching an online book store that will sell Harry Potter e-books directly to consumers. She has also launched a social-networking site designed to keep the Potter magic alive. The news was so big that it made the front page of the Wall Street Journal in the USA and The Times in London.

Yesterday Australian bookselling representatives descended on Canberra to express their concerns after Small Business Minister Nick Sherry said last week ”I think in five years, other than a few specialist booksellers in capital cities we will not see a bookstore, they will cease to exist.”

It now appears that JK Rowling agrees with Sherry.

Her free-to-access site, known as Pottermore, launches for the first million users on July 31. It will then be opened up to the general public with the full Harry Potter series available as e-books in multiple languages, compatible with any electronic reading device.

The move by Rowling is seen as a bold move by analysts as it bypasses online retailers like Amazon.com and Apple’s own  iBookstore.

Pottermore is a full-on Harry Potter online universe that allows readers to join a Hogwarts house and travel through the first Harry Potter book, while collecting points and playing games. 

Perhaps the biggest draw is the extra material that Ms. Rowling has written and unearthed from her notes, which gives intense Potter fans much-desired background and explanations about key characters, places and plots.