If you are a Harry Potter fan and have not been disconnected from the internet for the last few weeks, you know that J.K. Rowling has been promising a “big” announcement this morning (7:00am EDT) about the adolescent wizard. There was even a YouTube animation with a clock counting down the time to the big unveiling.

Speculation was rampant as to whether it could be a new book in the series, though apparently that has been quashed by Ms. Rowling’s agent. Many e-book aficionados have been hoping she has finally caved in and will be announcing the release of Harry Potter for Kindle and other e-readers — something she has resisted up until now (and has the clout to enforce). My pet theory was a Broadway musical, but I’m weird that way.

Well, it looks as if the e-book hopefuls are at least partly correct. The announcement is that Pottermore.com will be what sounds like an authorized, author-supported fan site, starting this October. As such, it will apparently be, among other things, the soul source provider of digital versions of the Harry Potter books, both audio books and e-books.

PS: Here is the official press release in PDF format: POTTERMORE.

So those of you who have patiently waited for legitimate e-book versions only have a few more months to wait, hopefully. The announcement also indicates that early subscribers may get some early bonuses, but I have no idea if this includes e-book access or not.