Crazy Days and Nights: JK Rowling Is Also A Man

Monday, July 15, 2013

JK Rowling Is Also A Man - Kind Of

Over the weekend, The Sunday Times blew the cover on JK Rowling. She had written an amazing crime novel called The Cuckoo's Calling and the author was supposedly a retired policeman named Robert Galbraith. The Times says they were suspicious because the book was so well written, they had hard time believing it was written by a first time author. The book had only sold 1500 copies at the time the story broke that it was actually written by JK Rowling. The sales of the book have now risen 150,000% and is now the #1 book on Kindle. Hmm, so maybe this was not just a Sunday Times thing, but also a publishing house thing. If you are a publisher, maybe you want to sell some more books and you have someone leak something to the press and the next thing you know you have a big seller. JK says she is disappointed that someone found out because she enjoyed the freedom of writing as someone else.

22 comments:

Barton Fink said...: Remember her dreadful book about people in a small town in England having affairs and fighting over village politics? Yeah, me neither.

On the positive side, she's sold kabillions of books and is richer than Croesus.; 9:24 AM
K said...: As one writer said today "If Martin Amis had been unveiled as the author of The Cuckoo's Calling, he would have been vilified. Just saying..."

That just about says it all.; 9:32 AM
Tyger Lilly said...: Well at least she won't have any more sleepless nights wondering if she can sell books to adults based solely on the quality of her writing and not on just her name. (The answer is no, sweetie. Keep writing to tweens & teens.); 9:43 AM
mlovesny said...: I don't blame her one bit.; 9:55 AM
msgirl said...: Actually the book was highly rated before the news came out. Didn't sell much, tho.; 10:07 AM
DewieTheBear said...: If you have the kind of money to try your hand at writing under another name for whatever reason, why not? Especially if you are a creative at heart who takes your art seriously.; 10:40 AM
Anonymous said...: so she doesn't have a penis nice headline enty; 10:53 AM
Snapdragon said...: @K, why would he have been vilified? As a man? (Asking sincerely.)

Best part of the story I read on this is that the whistle was blown via a Twitter account that has since been deleted. WHO WAS IT? :); 11:01 AM
lazyday603 said...: This isn't that strange. A lot of writers in what Terry Southern used to call "the quality lit racket" write genre fiction under different names. The only difference here is that nobody knew it was her. And given the reaction & sales since she was uncovered she was right to do it in secret to see at least what reviewers thought of her work (they all liked it quite a bit. Most wondered how a first time novelist could be such a polished writer).; 11:02 AM
Anonymous said...: remember when Garth Brooks made a record under an alter ego as a an emo goth guy? so weird.; 11:08 AM
Mary Ann said...: This isn't new. Literary author Evan Hunter (also a pen name, his most well-known name) wrote police procedural novels under the name Ed McBain, the famous 87th Precinct novels. Nora Roberts (romance writer) writes futuristic mysteries under the name of J.D. Robb. Stephen King released a number of books under the name of Richard Bachman.

Apparently, "The Cuckoo's Calling" is a good book. It got good reviews. Ms. Rowling doesn't need to write bestselling books. She needs to write good ones. I wish her well, no matter what name she chooses to use.; 11:20 AM
Krissie said...: @Anna Nonymous,oh Lord, Chris Gaines! I remember there was a "Behind the music" episode about Chris Gaines that treated him like he was real. That whole charade crossed the line from creativity into insanity, IMO.; 11:47 AM
shopgirl said...: Yeah, right, the Sunday Times thought a 1st time novelist can't write a good book so they investigated. Ha ha ha. Yes, if I were the publisher I'd leak it.; 12:24 PM
Snapdragon said...: More info: How J.K. Rowling’s Pseudonym Was Uncovered and Twitter Outs J.K. Rowling As Crime Novelist. The investigation was apparently launched when the info was leaked by a "Jude Callegari". Connection (if any) unknown.

Frankly, I tend to think JKR had nothing to do with it. She doesn't need the money or publicity and the book stands on its own two feet. My feeling is that "Jude" wanted to feel important for a moment (for having insider information) and sent the tweet to the Times writer.

(Chris Gaines, bwahaha, had forgotten all about that bad idea.); 1:15 PM
Rose said...: I don't blame her and I hope she tries again. What would be rather she do, roll around in her millions?; 1:24 PM
Jenn said...: She wanted the freedom of anonymity, just to write, I don't blame her. I love Harry Potter, but haven't checked out her new ones yet. I will when the price goes down a bit, or I find it in paperback.; 1:44 PM
librariantobe said...: What Mary Ann said. Quite a few best-selling authors have written under other names: Olivia Goldsmith, Michael Crichton, Ken Follett, John Grisham. It's more common than people think.; 2:32 PM
OKay said...: I loved this when I heard about it. She wanted to get feedback without people knowing it was her, and the book was very well received. Good for her. She's proven she has real talent. I always wondered whether she had more than the Harry Potter story in her, and clearly she does.; 2:57 PM
PugsterMom said...: I bought a kindle yesterday and this was the first book I bought for it. I'm loving it. I also bought a book of NY Times crossword puzzles for $1.99 so I am really happy right now.; 5:07 PM
Colleen said...: I'm about 150 pages in and really enjoying it as well. So glad she wrote a non-Potter book that's a million times better than Casual Vacancy.; 7:05 AM
Topper Madison said...: 1,500 copies is nothing to sneeze at for an unknown author. For scale, most self-published books sell less than 200 copies--ever. She did good.; 7:40 AM
April said...: @Anna Nonymous and Krissie - I enjoyed the Chris Gaines thing, if only because it led to Garth finally ensnaring Mango.; 2:03 PM

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Monday, July 15, 2013

JK Rowling Is Also A Man - Kind Of

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