If I was her I'd do exactly the same. There would have been so much pressure after Harry Potter, I wonder if a novel like that under her name instead of Robert whatshisname would have faired differently? Certainly a lot more notice and publicity around it.
I would have taken a nice long break after HP, she certainly deserved it.
Interesting. 1500 copies in hardback isn't good. I would be very happy that her identity was leaked if I was her publisher.
I was really disappointed in The Casual Vacancy because it was so forgettable. but I've downloaded a copy of The Cuckoo's Calling anyway...
I haven't been tempted with anything else of hers yet. I don't think it could possibly live up to HP. And I just looked up The Casual Vacancy on Amazon & they want a stupid amount for the kindle version so no thanks.
Harry Potter had a first print run of 500 hardbacks, Zazou. Plus, I'm pretty sure I read that it was 1500 hardbacks sold in Britain - it's also available in paperback & kindle & there's a US edition as well. Regardless, 1500 in the first 3 months with all-over favorable reviews for an (alleged) first timer ain't that bad.
There's not a lot of money in writing for most authors. Unless you're JK Rowling.
PS - I think the publication of the Casual Vacancy was an interesting exercise. Agree it was a forgettable novel. It may not even have flown for anyone else without the profile. But even despite the lackluster reviews, there was a lot of hype and it sold reasonably. but reading it was seeing an otherwise seasoned author making a common rookie mistake. I'm guessing JK probably learnt some lessons that might have bypassed her earlier in her publishing career because of the unusual success she enjoyed.
I saw a news report on this today and what I found fascinating was that once people found out that it was really written by JK Rowling, they couldn't buy it quick enough and now it's sold out in most places. Not one thing has changed with that book from last week to this week except that now the world knows it's a JK Rowling book, not a Robert Galbraith book and that ****s me. They have totally been suckered in by the hype surrounding this revelation. People were passing that book over and not buying it (as indicated by the sales figures), yet all of a sudden they can't part with their cash quick enough to buy it. I get peeved when people do this because they aren't really celebrating that it's a great book, but rather they are buying media hype and I think that's insulting to JK Rowling. she wins I suppose from a financial POV, but it kinda shows people as being moronic fools and goes to show just how fickle the people are about buying books. These days you need hype and a 'story' to sell books. There is no way known that 50 shade of **** would have made the best seller list if it wasn't surrounded by a media storm.
But I think it was a very smart move on her part. Because the Casual Vacancy got panned it would have made it even harder for to sell another adult-audience book straight under her own name. Well played JK Rowling, well played.
Has anyone else finished it yet?
I really enjoyed it. I like a good who dun it. I'll certainly read the next one in the series.
I'm not sure that it's about media hype so much as people tend to buy the new books written by their favourite authors and JK Rowling is a favourite author of lots of people. I tend to read books by authors I've enjoyed before. I bought The Casual Vacancy on the strength of her previous work but I probably wouldn't have bought another novel published under her name without reading some cracker reviews of it.
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