Amazon.com pays $3.98M for J.K. Rowling Book

JK Rowling’s hand written book, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” was sold yesterday for a record price of $3.98 million to a private book dealer, who represented the Sotheby's auction for the main buyer, Amazon.com.

The book was sold yesterday to a private dealer, Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox at the Sotheby’s auction. In most cases, either the dealer tries to resell at a later date, or buy the book for a anonymous buyer. There was no anonymity involved here however, after Amazon revealed it was the buyer after. The company posted a review on its site here. The video shows one of the handwritten copies, which JK Rowling handed to her close friends and the seventh one was sold to Amazon. The money is going for a good cause, “The Children’s Voice”, a charity JK Rowling started in 2005 to help poor, vulnerable children across Europe. According to a Mashable article, Amazon is not planning to sell the book. Instead, the company will probably keep the book at its main headquarters. There were preset conditions set in the auction by JK Rowling about the treatment of the book. Amazon will make this book available to as many people as possible through public readings in places like schools. So, most probably, they will be going on a nation-wide tour making it available for children in the U.S. The retailer has stated its purchase of the book is a way of giving thanks to the author who sparked a reading frenzy in children and young adults across the world. I think this is a smart idea, because if the book is promoted to the public in readings it will be great advertising for Amazon.