Pseudonyms: J.K. Rowling style

Oh, pseudonyms. Sometimes I don't understand why people use them, and other times, I do. Sometimes it's about a day job versus writing career, other times a difficult to pronounce/remember name. Then there are those times where writers just want one (that's what I'll never understand LOL).

But, I think, the trickiest time to figure out the most beneficial move when it comes to a pseudonym is when an already established author wants to write in a completely different genre. Do you use a pen name so that your audience doesn't get confused, or so people who might not read your other genre will still pick up your new book? Or do you say to hell with it and try to use your clout and name recognition to pull in readers?

For example, J.K. Rowling.

This morning, news broke that the Harry Potter author has published a crime novel under a different name (even a different gender, might I add). When the info came to light, her sales increased by 1000 percent.

BCC News tells us more:

The Harry Potter novelist published the book - The Cuckoo's Calling - as Robert Galbraith. 

The book had sold less than 500 copies before the secret emerged in the Sunday Times, according to Nielsen BookScan's figures. 

Within hours, it rose more than 5,000 places to top Amazon's sales list. 

The digital version is now also at number one in the iTunes book chart. 

The book was published by Sphere, part of Little, Brown Book Group which published Rowling's first foray into writing novels for adults, The Casual Vacancy. 

Little, Brown's David Shelley confirmed to The Bookseller the publisher had ordered an "immediate reprint" with the number not yet confirmed. 

Rowling said she had "hoped to keep this secret a little longer". 

The author described "being Robert Galbraith" as "such a liberating experience". 

A spokesman for bookseller Waterstones said: "This is the best act of literary deception since Stephen King was outed as Richard Bachman back in the 1980s." 

One reviewer described The Cuckoo's Calling as a "scintillating debut", while another praised the male author's ability to describe women's clothes. 

Crime writer Peter James told the Sunday Times: "I thought it was by a very mature writer, and not a first-timer." 

Fellow crime author Mark Billingham, who reviewed the book ahead of its publication in April, said he was "gobsmacked" at the revelation. 

The fictitious Galbraith was supposed to have been a former plain-clothes Royal Military Police investigator who had left the armed forces in 2003 to work in the civilian security industry. 

However a clue that Rowling was behind the novel was that she and Galbraith shared an agent and editor. 

In previous interviews, Rowling has said she would prefer to write novels after Harry Potter under a pseudonym. 

Another Cormoran Strike book by Robert Galbraith is in the pipeline, to be published next year. 

See the original post HERE

While I'll agree it's a surprise that Robert Galbraith is, in fact, J.K. Rowling, I think the reaction people are having is a little overboard. Why would anyone assume a creative of any kind can only thrive in one specific format or style? Just because someone is a painter, doesn't mean they can't sculpt. It doesn't mean they can, of course, but no one would simply assume they can't. Personally, I am thrilled for Rowling and applaud her reaching outside the media's perceived comfort zone to write something she really just wanted to write.

But the news leak does beg the publicity question--was writing under a pen name really the best move for the book itself? Rowling had already breached the gap between children's lit and adult fiction with Casual Vacancy, so why the need to be so secretive all of a sudden? Some might speculate that the intention may have been to create a publicity stunt in the first place with an intentional pseudonym leak. Or maybe she really did just want to see how her book would do on its own merit, without any preconceived notions.

I guess we may never know.

What do YOU think?

Rowling Entering the Adult Fiction Realm

It's been nearly five years since J.K. Rowling's final "Harry Potter" book was released. Since then, there have been multiple film releases, Pottermore, and the HP eBooks were birthed. And now, Rowling's UK publisher Little, Brown announces her return to the shelves with her first foray into adult literature.

Here's more from the publisher's website:

The book will be published worldwide in the English language in hardback, ebook, unabridged audio download and on CD on Thursday 27th September 2012.

The Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

See the original post HERE

I've got to admit, I'm not convinced that this book with be a hit. I have a sneaking suspicion it will make that sad and painful belly-flop noise. The Rowling name is linked so closely with children's literature and the fantasy genre that a jump to a "blackly comic" literary adult novel seems too drastic to work. It's also such a vastly different style of writing and Rowling is so well-versed in her past technique/voice/etc. that I can't imagine her writing something so different. But I am eager to find out if she pulls it off and learn just how far her writing chops span.

A Harry Potter Update

Ah-ha! We have a "Pottermore" update--Harry Potter is finally going to e-book format, according to The Washington Post:

Author JK Rowling announced that Harry Potter fans will be able to read her famous series in e-book form for the first time, starting this fall.

In an announcement launching Pottermore, an interactive Harry Potter Web site and online store, Rowling said that the full series will be available in digital form. The books will be in several languages and will work on any electronic reading device.

The site will also sell digital audiobooks of the novels.

Through the site, Rowling will also share tidbits from the Harry Potter universe that she’s been “hoarding” through the years, she said in a video announcement. While the author has said she will not be writing any more novels about Harry Potter, she has hinted in the past that she would like to write an encyclopedia about the books’ universe. It seems Pottermore will be an outlet for Rowling to share backstory and other facts that did not fit into the seven-book series.

Pottermore will be open to a million users on July 31 — Harry Potter’s birthday — and open to the public in October. Fans can already submit their e-mail addresses on the site to be notified when registration opens.

Read the original post and see a video of Rowling's announcement HERE

Eternal Life for Harry Potter on Rowling's "Pottermore"

As we approach the release of the final Harry Potter film (July 15 for those of you who are not obsessed), J.K. Rowling and her band of beloved magic-folk are in the news once more.

According to Digital Spy, Rowling has just announced a new Harry Potter website called "Pottermore." Speculation is that the creation of the site might poise the author to write and release another HP.

JK Rowling has unveiled a mysterious new website titled Pottermore, sparking speculation that more Harry Potter is on the way.

The Potter author launched Pottermore.com - currently featuring just a logo, the message "Coming soon" and Rowling's signature - on Wednesday, following a frenzied "Secret Street View" challenge.

Ten Potter websites were given co-ordinates which each pertained to a different letter in the Pottermore name, all of which were pieced together to reveal the website's address.

While no further details have been revealed about the project, a source at hpana.com, who has apparently seen the site, described it as "breathtaking in scope, detail and sheer beauty".

A Pottermore Twitter account has also been set up at twitter.com/pottermore.

The name is said to have been the last patent recorded by Rowling, who registered the word internationally in July 2009.

Rowling is currently working on several new projects and has previously confessed that she is unsure whether she would ever write another Harry Potter book.

Read the original post HERE

While I love the books, I've gotta say, I think it's time for Rowling to let go of the HP trend and try her hand at something new. The story line is complete now, and any additions would just be forced and ring untrue. At least to me. Even book 7 was pushing it, in my opinion!

I am, however, still excited for the last film. Check out the trailer below if you haven't seen it yet! *squee*

Harry Potter Galore at Scotland Book Fest

It's very rare that I ever wish I lived in Scotland. And when I do, it's usually the result of some sexy man in a kilt from a historical romance novel. But right now, I'm kind of wishing I were able to just hop in my car (if I had a car, that is) and drive on over to the Wigtown Book Festival in southwest Scotland.

Why, you ask?

Because, for the first time ever, one of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter manuscripts is going on display, according to CBC News:

Handwritten manuscripts by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling are going on public display for the first time at a book festival in Scotland.

The original manuscripts, which are signed, were written as part of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — the second title in the seven-book series that stormed the world and made Rowling a multimillionaire.

The framed pages contain "The Ballad of Nearly Headless Nick" and will be put on display at the ReadingLasses bookshop as part of the Wigtown Book Festival in southwest Scotland.

Nearly Headless Nick is the ghost who haunts Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The ballad was edited out of the book before publication.

"This is a one-off exhibition and contrary to belief it is not on a world tour," Gerrie Douglas-Scott of ReadingLasses, which focuses on books by women, told the Scotsman newspaper.

"We're very excited that this bit of Harry Potter is coming home to Scotland for 10 days."

The pages were first donated in 2005 by the author, who lives in Edinburgh, to the Scottish Language Dictionaries organization to help raise funds for a new Scottish language dictionary.

They subsequently ended up in the hands of Ilyas Khan, owner of the Asia Literary Review and a book collector. The Review is one of the festival's sponsors.

In 1999, the Scottish Parliament recognized the town as Scotland's National Book Town, marking the inaugural year of the festival, which runs from Sept. 24 to Oct.3.

See the complete post HERE

I'd kill to get an up close look at Rowling's manuscripts. I look at manuscripts every day, yes, but there's something so powerful about looking at an MS of one of the beloved titles on your bookshelf, years after you first read it. Or even just looking at an old manuscript will do it for me. Whenever libraries and museums put new manuscripts on display, I go weak in the knees. I'm not sure when I began having that reaction to manuscripts, but my love certainly escalated in college when I took a class called "Book Work."

Our main topic of study in the class was authorial versus editorial intent and, as such, we spent a great deal of time in the Boston University and Harvard University libraries and archives, getting a first-hand look at what the authors themselves had written in their notebooks. I love donning those white gloves, having each piece carried out to me, slipped out of its protective plastic sleeve so I could spend some time with the work.

Reminiscing over one particular project is even making me feel all jello-y inside. My big paper in that class was on Robert Frost's first collection of poetry, A Witness Tree, and the word/punctuation choices editors over time had made when reissuing the collection. So, given my thesis topic (I can't recall my thesis exactly at the moment haha), I would go to the archives and sit there for hours, transcribing Frost's handwritten poems into my notebook.

It was just love.

Harry Potter and the Unfounded Plagiarism Lawsuit

The Associated Press announced today that perrennial children's author J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame and her publisher, Bloomsbury UK, are being sued for copyright infringement.

USA Today published the AP article online first thing this morning:

J.K. Rowling has been named in a lawsuit alleging she stole ideas for her wildly popular and lucrative Harry Potter books from another British author.

The estate of the late Adrian Jacobs on Wednesday added Rowling as a defendant in a lawsuit it filed in June against Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for alleged copyright infringement, according to a statement released by the estate's representatives, who are based in Australia.

The lawsuit, filed in a London court, claims Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire copied substantial parts of Jacobs' 1987 book, The Adventures of Willy the Wizard — No. 1 Livid Land. Jacobs' estate also claims that many other ideas from Willy the Wizard were copied into the Harry Potter books. Jacobs died in London in 1997.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in Rowling's series and was published in July 2000.

Sydney agent Max Markson, who is representing the trustee of Jacobs' estate, Paul Allen, said Rowling was added to the lawsuit after Allen learned that the statute of limitations to sue her had not run out, as previously thought.

"I estimate it's a billion-dollar case," Markson said Thursday. "That'll be the decision of the courts, obviously."

J.K. Rowling said the claim was completely untrue.

"I am saddened that yet another claim has been made that I have taken material from another source to write Harry," she said. "The fact is I had never heard of the author or the book before the first accusation by those connected to the author's estate in 2004; I have certainly never read the book."

"The claims that are made are not only unfounded but absurd and I am disappointed that I, and my UK publisher Bloomsbury, are put in a position to have to defend ourselves. We will be applying to the Court immediately for a ruling that the claim is without merit and should therefore be dismissed without delay."

In June, Bloomsbury said the allegation that Rowling lifted from Jacobs' work was "unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue." Bloomsbury said Jacobs' estate first approached the company in 2004 with its claims, but was unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books that was copied from Willy the Wizard.

In a statement, Allen said the estate is also seeking legal advice on whether the Harry Potter films and soon-to-be-opened Harry Potter theme park breach copyright law.

Willy the Wizard? Really?

I'm inclinded to believe Rowling on this one. I don't think anyone has ever heard of him before. And without even a speck of solid evidence of plagiarism, it looks like this case is dead before it even appears before a judge.

It sounds to me like the Jacobs estate is just trying to snag any kind of publicity they can for Willy and his shenanigans, even if its negative. Just as they've been doing for years.

A New Life for Graphic Novels

Graphic novels are taking a surprising new turn: biographies.

Alison Flood of the Guardian.co.uk reports that publisher Bluewater Productions will be launching a series of biographies of well-known female authors in the form of comic books. The first two publications--expected in November and December of this year--will feature Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and Twilight's Stephanie Meyer, respectively. Flood writes:

The latest in comic book warfare pits two unlikely heroines against each other: JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer. The bestselling authors are set to go head-to-head at the end of the year, when graphic novel biographies of each writer are lined up for publication.

Dressed in a purple off-the-shoulder dress and a golden necklace, Rowling's comic persona is somewhat more glamorous than that of Meyer, who sports a grey v-neck jumper. Whether this will prove more enticing to readers of the comics, which are scheduled for release in December and November respectively by US publisher Bluewater Productions, remains to be seen.

Read the rest of this story HERE

Personally, I'm not 100 percent sure what Bluewater is hoping to accomplish here. But it's certainly different.