J R R Tolkien will move into the digital age as HarperCollins begins selling his Lord of the Rings series as enhanced e-books. David Roth-Ey, director of digital business development, said that the launch was the
most significant e-book initiative” the publisher has done so far. He said: “This is something that the fans so clearly wanted. Releasing Tolkien in e-books is something that has long been a goal of ours and we wanted to create high-quality legal versions of these books. It was a long -process—with the maps and runes, it’s slightly more complicated than [digitising] your average thriller.
As The Bookseller went to press, the publisher said it was planning to issue Tolkien’s entire back catalogue as e-books, beginning with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit and The Children of Húrin from today [20th April]. The Hobbit is priced £6.99, and the three individual Lord of the Rings titles as well as The Children of Húrin are priced £7.99. The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy can be bought for £19.99.