《哈利波特》作者新小说9月出炉
JK Rowling puts premium on price of her new ebook
A day after her publisher reached a settlement with the Department of Justice that is expected to cut the price of bestselling ebooks in the US to $9.99, JK Rowling announced that the electronic edition of her next novel would be priced at twice that sum.
J•K•罗琳(JK Rowling)的出版商刚刚与美国司法部(DoJ)达成和解，欲将畅销电子书在美国的定价削减至9.99美元。一天后她就宣布下一部小说的电子版定价将比此价格高出一倍。
The author of seven Harry Potter books that sold 450m copies, yesterday said her first novel for adults would be called The Casual Vacancy. Little Brown, an imprint of Hachette with worldwide English-language rights to the book, will publish it on September 27.
著有七部哈利•波特(Harry Potter)系列小说、销量达4.5亿册的罗琳昨天宣布，她第一部面向成人读者的小说题为《The Casual Vacancy》。阿歇特集团(Hachette)旗下的利特尔布朗出版社(Little Brown)将于9月27日出版该书。利特尔布朗拥有该书英语版本的全球权利。
Ms Rowling was a late convert to ebooks, making the Harry Potter titles available online only last month, 15 years after the first title was published in print. With strong demand expected for her first full-length novel in five years, her pricing strategy could be a test of a confused new market for ebooks following the DoJ’s lawsuit.
罗琳很晚才接受了电子书这一形式，直到上个月才在网上发布哈利•波特系列小说，距离该系列第一部作品印刷版出版已有15年之久。由于她五年来首部新的长篇小说预计将面对强劲需求，她的定价策略可能会在美国司法部的诉讼之后，考验混乱的电子书市场新秩序。
The title will sell for $35 in hardback and $19.99 in ebook format in the US, and for ￡20 in hardback and ￡11.99 in the UK, according to Little Brown. But the publisher did not say whether it would make the title available through leading ebook retailers such as Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble’s Nook store or Apple’s iBookstore.
利特尔布朗出版社表示，该书在美国市场精装版定价为35美元，电子版则为19.99美元，在英国市场精装版20英镑，电子版11.99英镑。不过出版社并未透露是否会通过几家领先的电子书零售商，如亚马逊(Amazon.com)、Barnes and Noble的Nook电子书店和苹果(Apple)的iBookstore销售该书。
Amazon and Barnes and Noble can display ebook versions of the Harry Potter titles on their sites, but they can only be bought by following links to Pottermore.com, Ms Rowling’s own site, where the first three titles sell for $7.99 and the last four for $9.99. The books are not in Apple’s iBookstore but users of Apple’s iPad tablets can access them from Pottermore.
亚马逊和Barnes and Noble显示有哈利•波特系列作品的电子版本，但要点击链接前往罗琳自己的网站Pottermore.com才能购买。在Pottermore.com上，前三部的定价为每部7.99美元，后四部则为9.99美元。该系列图书未在苹果iBookstore上出售，但苹果iPad平板电脑用户可从Pottermore网站购买。
A spokesman for Ms Rowling said she had not decided whether to sell the new novel through Pottermore or through a range of ebook stores.
罗琳的一位发言人说，她还没有决定新小说要在Pottermore还是在一系列电子书店销售。
Benedict Evans, of Enders Analysis, said the author’s fame made her an exception in being able to sell directly to her readers, who are willing to be inconvenienced by having to enter credit card details instead of simply pressing a single “buy” button. He added, however, that DoJ constraints could encourage publishers to set up their own sites to sell direct, circumventing Amazon and its rivals.
Enders Analysis分析师班尼迪克•埃文斯(Benedict Evans)指出，罗琳的名气让她成了一个能直接向读者销售作品的特例，这些读者愿意费神输入信用卡信息，而不是简单地点击“购买”按钮。不过，埃文斯还补充说，美国司法部的限制可能会鼓励出版商设立自己的网站直接销售作品，绕开亚马逊及其竞争对手。
The three publishers that settled with the DoJ, including Hachette, will still be able to set prices under a revision of the formula known as the agency model in which retailers such as Amazon keep 30 per cent of the list price.
与美国司法部达成和解的三家出版商，包括阿歇特，仍能够以称为“代理制”的经过修改的模式进行定价。按照该模式，亚马逊等零售商将收取定价的30%。
Should Ms Rowling sell through Amazon, it could discount the title to $13.99 under the terms of the DoJ settlement, or to a lower price if it made up the difference to the publisher over the course of a year’s sales of The Casual Vacancy or on other titles.
假如罗琳通过亚马逊出售作品，只要《The Casual Vacancy》或其他作品在亚马逊一年的销售额，能够为出版商弥补差价，那么亚马逊就可以按照与美国司法部的和解条款，将该书价格打折至13.99美元，或更低的价格。 译者:王柯伦