With the launch of the store at Pottermore.com, it’s now possible to get digital versions of all seven Harry Potter novels.
I own all of the audiobooks twice over, and several of the printed books, but the eBooks represent something new: the chance to read the British version of the novels. Alas, due to insanely complicated–and stupid–international publication rights and restrictions, and my credit card’s USA billing address, the Pottermore.com store did not want to allow me to buy the UK version of the books.
Here’s how I bought them anyway. (You can do the same for the audiobooks, too.)
The basic trick is that I bought a gift for a “friend” who lives in the UK. Buying a gift allows (or in theory requires) you to purchase the edition appropriate for the gift recipient, rather than restricting you to the edition you are allowed to buy. And since your “friend” is redeeming a gift credit, they don’t need to enter a billing address that gets verified (or not) by a credit card transaction.
The only “tricky” part is that you need to have two email addresses, one for you (the buyer) and one for your “friend” (the gift recipient). Many people have a home and a work email, but as long as you have one, it’s not hard to get a second on one of the different webmail services (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.).
The full walk-through of the process is pretty damn tedious, you have to create Pottermore.com accounts for both you and your “friend”, but in the end I turned my $62 American dollars into all seven British edition eBooks, and they work great on my iPad (and well enough on my iPhone). I’m very much looking forward to re-reading the books again, with the Philosopher’s Stone and “colours” and “chips” (fries) and “biscuits” (cookies) and “snogging” (PDA) and all the rest of the wonderful English language in which the books were originally written.
If you’ve wanted to listen to the magnificent Stephen Fry narrated versions of the books, but balked at the £240 price plus international shipping charges from Amazon.com UK, this is your opportunity to save quite a bit of money. To say nothing of instant gratification!
Yes! Having the same issue with the audiobooks showing as being the Stephen Fry version in the description, but the dropdown menu showing as Danish (with a few other options, none of which is EnglishUK).
I hesitate to continue through checkout in fear that I’ll end up being sent a link for the Danish download file.
I followed Kelly’s advice and ignored the dropdown menu that indicated I was ordering the Danish version. I’m now the very happy owner of the Stephen Fry GB version of the HP books (and they were on sale, too)!
As long as you choose a country that’s allowed to buy the GB version for your gift recipient, the gift giver can pay in USD. You just need two email addresses to make this work.
I am having the same issue with the language changing to Danish.
Anyone have a work around for this yet?
I’ve created two email addresses and actually two different pottermore accounts. I live in the US and told the site I’d like to gift my other email address with the Stephen Fry version. Everything looks good until I get to check out when the “book language” changes to Danish. When I click on the drop down bar, I can no longer select English (GB). Any ideas?
I am having the same issue. It always comes up Danish instead of English (GB)
That happened to me too, but I figured out you just need to ignore it.
It’s because the US regulations won’t allow them to show the English (GB) option in the cart dropdown where you could change it to that forbidden option, so it’s defaulting to the option at the top of the list. If you change the selection in that field it will change the version you’re buying, even if you change it back to Danish. So if you’ve already changed it you have to start over and re-add it to your cart. But if you leave that field alone and ignore the fact it says Danish, once you check out and leave that screen, it again shows that it’s British English. And I can confirm that that’s what you get when you download it.
I went to purchase the british version as a gift and when I added it to my basket, it showed up as the danish version. I tried to change it but the GB version was not available. Any ideas?
I think I’d like to snog you now ;) thanks ever so much!!!!
Michael;
Like most people I just want to thank you for figuring out how to get around this ridiculous restriction. I just love Stephen Fry’s rendition/narration of the books.
Super work and thanks again,
Don Edwards
I bought the ebooks some time ago and used up my available devices. I now have a new iPad, does anyone know if it is possible to transfer the ebooks from my old iPad to my new one?
Thanks in advance!
The files are mp3. When I attempted to download the files on my tablet I get an error, so I assumed it was because the files come in zip format, so I put them on my laptop (PC). I moved them to google drive because usually my device will choose the most appropriate app for the type of file, or give me a choice between multiple apps. This time I got the message that I did not have ANY app that could play the files, which is strange as I have almost every app through which they said it could be played, kindle, iTunes, iBooks, etc. the only thing I can guess is that it’s due to it being from the UK, which doesn’t make sense as it’s on my laptop ok, or that it has something to Di with PC to Apple transfer, although I’ve never experienced this before. I admit I have not tried to transfer directly to iTunes so I will try this next, but in the past I could put it in iTunes from Google drive. I will let you know, and thanks for the help.
Hi. I just bought the audiobooks as suggested, however I am having a problem, not sure why. I was able to download to my laptop, but I am unable to open it on any other device. I put it in my google drive from my computer and my phone, my kindle fire, and my iPad, none of them are able to play or download the file. I watched the YouTube help video and it seems like you are able to choose which device you want it on from a drop down menu at the point of purchase, but I have not seen that menu, from any of my devices. So the good news is that I have it and it’s on my laptop. Bad news, I can’t listen to it. Well, I guess I could if I listened to books from my laptop…
@Ami: I’m not sure what to make of your problem. Without looking at your setup, it’s hard to guess how to help, but here’s a few things to look at or try.
First, what format are the audiobooks in? What’s the file extension on the downloaded file(s)? (The part in the file name after the last period, “.”.) If it’s .mp3, you should be able to play it on anything. But I’m not sure what format Pottermore offers the audiobooks in (I bought the CDs before Pottermore was available.)
Second, what are you playing the books with on your laptop?
Third, what kind of phone do you have? Are you sure that copying the files to your phone using Google Drive is the best way to go? Maybe you could try iTunes, or some other transfer tool. What app are you using to play the audiobooks on your phone? Maybe try a different one?
Fourth, for your iPad, how about transferring the file using iTunes, and then using the Audible app to try to play it back? Or the built-in Music app, that should work too, though you may have to navigate to the Audiobooks source list via the “…” More button.
HTH!
Okay, so for anyone who was wondering about the audiobooks they do in fact work. And you don’t even have to create an account for your friend. I accidentally had my old account signed in when I opened the gift, and it added all the gift books to my regular account, the Canadian one, but it still added them in the UK version.
Plus, for the UK ebook’s you don’t even need a fake account. Those ones they will sell to you even if you aren’t from the UK. I bought those ones months ago from my Canadian account.
@Heather: Glad it worked for you! The rules and contracts governing sales rights for books, ebooks, and audiobooks are extremely complicated, and vary from country to country. Given Canada’s ties to the British Crown, it’s not surprising that the purchasing privileges of a Canadian account are better than a U.S.-based account when it comes to the UK-based Pottermore. (Yet another reason to envy Canadians!) But I’m not sure if that extends to other countries generally.
Best rule of thumb is, give the “honest” route a try, and if it works, great. If it doesn’t, giving yourself a gift is not being dishonest, it’s simply working around antiquated rules that haven’t caught up with the Internet.
It always astonishes me that there are “for profit” enterprises in this world who won’t let me give them my money in return for their goods and services…
I’ve wanted to get the Harry Potter UK audio book set for years. I want to buy the set from Pottermore (since it’s way cheaper than the physical set), but will it actually play/work if I buy the UK set in the US? I’ve heard there could be restrictions that would stop them from playing. I just don’t want to waste $300 on them if they aren’t going to work. Thanks!
@Corinne: You shouldn’t have any problems with audiobooks purchased from the Pottermore.com site. The audiobooks are delivered in MP3 format, which doesn’t support DRM of any kind. No restrictions. (No technical restrictions. Don’t steal or share audiobooks. It is against the law, and the penalties are far greater than you might expect.)
More details in the Pottermore FAQs. For example:
Thank you! Very helpful info!
I found a nice deluxe cloth-bound hardcover set of the first 4 Potter books at an Amazon zShop back when Goblet of Fire was the newest edition. I wanted a UK copy of the first book as the US edition has the title (and name of the artifact) wrong. Imagine my surprise fo find further text alterations in the Scholastic editions! So I continued to preorder my copies directly from Amazon.UK as they came out (which allowed my entire set to match!), and saved enough on the first four that the added expense balanced out nicely.
I don’t think the later books have changes (and the most radical are probably in the first book), but otherwise I highly recommend getting the “real” editions, hard copy or digital!
Do you know where I can find the UK Chapter and sub chapter names (tracks) for the UK audio books? There are two different sets….one with text from story as chapter names and one with numbers and letters, ex: 10A, 10B,….
@Coco: I’m not sure I understand what you mean. Do you just want the names of the chapters, the text used for the chapter headings in the books? Or are you looking for the tracks themselves? You can purchase the audiobooks from Pottermore easily enough, as described in this post. The plain text of the chapter titles, I’m sure those are available via google, and maybe even just by visiting Amazon.com and looking up each book…
Yes!!! Thanks sooooo much. I just gifted myself the UK set, and I’m thrilled. It worked just like you outlined, but I actually didn’t have to make a second account as the gift receiver (did use a second email). I’m so glad I found your comments. I was so close to settling, as I’ve been wanting the electronic editions for so long. Awesome!
You’re a genius! Got my UK edition Harry Potter books using your method and it worked like a charm! Thanks for ousting this!