By now, I’m sure everyone has heard about JK Rowling’s failed stunt. If you haven’t, here it is in a nutshell.
As the famed writer of the gazillion-selling Harry Potter series, she knew she could publish her grocery list and it would sail to the top of the charts. However, JK, in an attempt to return to humble origins, decided she would put out a crime thriller called The Cuckoo’s Calling under a pseudonym. She wanted to “publish without hype or expectation” and allow herself to bask in the “pure pleasure to get feedback from publishers and readers under a different name.”
Wow, turning the literary world “upside down”, as it were.
She created a persona for her fake name, including gender-switching, presenting herself as one “Robert Galbraith”, a man with long experience in the army and in the private security business. Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?
Following a couple of ill-advised submissions under her pseudonym to publishers, and subsequent rejections (“Doesn’t stand out”, wrote one editor), she decided to bring her publisher (Little, Brown UK), editor, and agent into it. Presto! The book was published and mysteriously acquired blurbs from many of the biggest names in the world of literature. In addition, it received universally good reviews, starred, I might add. Not bad for a debut author, wouldn’t you say?
Well, after all this initial hoopla, the publisher sent out 1500 books, of which fewer than 500 sold in the first three months. The book was clearly tanking, and poor JK didn’t know what went wrong with her little experiment. I mean, it was a well-written book, right? Look at all those great reviews! And all the big names who blurbed it! Doesn’t that count for anything? Why aren’t people buying it?
Refusing to face failure, she took action. An “anonymous” tweet was received by the London Times, saying the book was really written by JK Rowling. The Times tweeted back asking how does this person know and they received a tweet saying something to the effect of “I just know”. The Twitter account of this anonymous person was then immediately deleted, wiping out any trace of who sent the message.
According to the legend that is currently being confected, the Times used great detective work in uncovering Rowling as the true writer of The Cuckoo’s Calling. They discovered the fake writer shared the same publisher, editor, and agent as Rowling. Hmmm. Coincidence? I don’t think so! Sherlock Holmes would certainly be proud.
Amazingly, not long afterward, Rowling “confessed” to being the true writer. Overnight, the book zoomed to #1 on Amazon, where it still is today.
JK did not achieve her goal of “publishing without hype or expectation”, since Little, Brown moved mountains for her to get the blurbs and reviews, which they would’ve never done for an unknown writer. Despite this big unwarranted assist, she received what nearly every other debut author gets: a one-way ticket to oblivion. Despite the heavy hand of Little, Brown’s promotional juggernaut, the book was circling the drain after three months. I’m sure JK preferred to sell another gazillion books and cash those big royalty checks instead of reveling in the “pure pleasure(of getting) feedback from publishers and readers under a different name”, especially since that feedback could be distilled into two words: “No, thanks.”
Put me down as saying she outed herself. Like I said, she couldn’t face the failure and rejection the rest of us face on a daily basis. She really has no idea how we live and her brief flirtation with rejection was just too much for her to bear, poor thing. Or maybe she just figured the unwashed reading public down there just needed to realize what a great book it was, so they could spend their money on it.
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“…she couldn’t face the failure and rejection the rest of us face on a daily basis. She really has no idea how we live and her brief flirtation with rejection was just too much for her to bear, poor thing.”
This is ridiculous. The woman went through rejection with HP before she became a living legend. She certainly doesn’t need the money, and considering she’s a living legend whose work will be read and loved for generations after she’s gone, I have a very hard time believing she has anything left to prove.
She wanted to write and publish without the public knowing who she was, period. Someone at Mulholland leaked it because they know a new series from Rowling will rocket the imprint into the stratosphere and end their financial worries. What will be interesting to see is if she continues the series after the third book, which is apparently already finished.
What she did and why don’t interest me. I don’t begrudge her success, and she has given away vast sums of money. I’ll take her comments at face value, if for no other reason than she’s earned it, and i don’t really care. (All right, that’s two reasons. I’m a writer, not a mathematician.)
The key point here is how it shows what it’s like for a new writer. The book will be on its own, and, if it doesn’t sell, it’s the writer who will carry the stigma, not the published who orphaned it. A lot of money has now been spent marketing this book, now that it’s known Rowling wrote it, when all they had to d was put out the word and people would have lined up for it. Yet very little will be done for any author who has yet to establish a track record. If only for pointing that out, she gets my thanks.
Devon–
This is not at all ridiculous. Yes, Rowling went through rejection with the first Harry Potter, but how long ago was that? And now she’s worth around $800 million. I’m quite sure she’s not exactly itching to relive the days of rejection.
If she wanted to “write and publish without the public knowing who she was, period,” then why didn’t she doggedly pursue the cold-query route after she received a couple of form-letter rejections? Why did she instead turn to her publisher to put the book out, accompanied by an inordinate blizzard of promotion?
I think it’s more like she wanted to “write and publish without the public knowing who she was, comma, provided she sold a shitload of books.”
Dana–
You’re right when you say this episode shows what it’s like for a new writer. LIke I said in my post, new writers are shoved onto the fast train to nowhere. Unfortunately, Rowling had no real desire to continue as a “new writer”. She was clearly embarrassed by the failure of her little stunt, so she gave it up, allowing her name to turn her rejected book into a #1 smash hit.
“She wanted to write and publish without the public knowing who she was, period.”
Devon, you don;t really believe that, do you?