Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Rowling Published This Spring Quietly As "Robert Galbraith"

Publishers Lunch

JK Rowling has confessed that she authored the crime novel THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, published in April to at least some positive reviews and very modest sales (441 print units in the UK, and about the same in the US, as tracked by Nielsen Bookscan). Rowling was unmasked by The Sunday Times "after it investigated how a first-time author 'with a background in the army and the civilian security industry' could write such an assured debut novel." Actually, as the paper's books editor Richard Brooks admitted, columnist India Knight was first set on the story by an anonymous Twitter tip (from an account that has since been deleted).

Rowling said, "I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name."

Following the revelation, the book's online sales rank rose quickly. Mulholland Books in the US and Little Brown UK are going back to press -- hardly surprising, given the tiny inventory required up until now. Rowling's full statement indicates she has another "Galbraith" crime novel coming next summer, from the same publishers, and she intends to continue the Cormoran Strike series beyond that.


At least one other UK editor, Kate Mills at Orion -- another part of Hachette UK -- was offered the manuscript and turned it down. She said, "I thought it was well-written but quiet. It didn't stand out for me and new crime novels are hard to launch right now." And to an extent her instincts were right, given the poor sales. It's not clear how widely the Galbraith manuscript was submitted. 
Rowling's spokesperson said, "I can confirm the book was treated like any new novel by a first-time writer. We are not going into any more detail than that or commenting further."


And from Shelf Awareness:

Strike Out: Rowling Wrote The Cuckoo's Calling

The author of The Cuckoo's Calling, published by Mulholland Books on April 30, turns out to be J.K. Rowling, who used the pseudonym Robert Galbraith for the book, revealed yesterday by the Sunday Times in London.

Little, Brown confirmed that Rowling is Galbraith--which was supposedly a pseudonym for a retired British military investigator. A reprint of the book that is underway will add this phrase in the author biography: "Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling."

The Cuckoo's Calling stars Cormoran Strike, a private investigator who lost a leg in Afghanistan. Strike's life is falling apart personally and professionally when he gets a case involving a supermodel--nicknamed Cuckoo by her friends--who fell to her death, ruled a suicide by police. But her brother doesn't believe it.

Not surprisingly, the book, which was well received critically--some considered it an unusually good debut--but not sold particularly strongly, jumped yesterday to No. 1 on Barnes&Noble.com and Amazon and is out of stock. 

Noting that the London Times had been tipped off to the truth of Galbraith's identity via tweets from an account that no longer exists, the New York Times said, "It is, of course, possible that the anonymous tweets were part of a sneaky campaign by the publisher to get the story out... Ms. Rowling now stands to make a lot of money from this new book, and so do the publishers. One interesting aspect of the whole story is how Little, Brown essentially colluded in keeping a secret that caused it, at least until now, to forgo possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue."

In a her only comment on the situation, Rowling said, "I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer, because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name."

Little, Brown publisher Reagan Arthur commented: "We are pleased and proud to have published The Cuckoo's Calling, and we're delighted by the response it has received from readers, reviewers and fellow writers. We are really looking forward to publishing the second book in the Strike series next summer."
Another Rowling post-Harry Potter book, The Casual Vacancy, has sold more than a million copies in North America despite mixed reviews. It is appearing in paperback next week.

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