J.K. Rowling, author of the famous Harry Potter series – has a new book out!
But you won’t find it under her name. And this one isn’t a continuation of the Harry Potter story.
“The Cuckoo’s Calling” was promoted as the debut novel of Robert Galbraith, a former soldier. There was little buzz around the book until The Sunday Times reported that it was not at all a debut – and that Robert Galbraith did not exist.
Richard Brooks is the person that discovered the truth, thanks to a tweet by a colleague of his.
After tweeting about how interesting the book was, a reply appeared saying that the novel is not a debut. When asked who wrote the book the reply was quite fast: “J.K. Rowling”.
What was really interesting is that the person that tweeted the answer quickly disappeared, much like they were under a Harry Potter spell. This led to speculation that it was actually the author, or a her staff, that exposed the truth in an attempt to generate more sales.
As a good journalist, Brooks conducted his own research, as it did seem weird that the tweet came out of the blue.
Galbraith and J.K. Rowling have the same literary agent and there is absolutely no picture of him on the site of the agency. After further digging, Brooks was convinced that the tweet was not false.
Eventually Rowling came out and said that it was the truth, declaring that writing a book under a pen name was a “liberating experience”.
The revelation resulted in immediate results. Sales of the new detective novel quickly sky rocketed on Amazon, quickly becoming the number one best seller.
It is believed that the reason behind the use of the pen name is that “The Casual Vacancy,” the last book that was written by the author, did not have great reviews. Brooks said:
“…that’s why, partly, I think, she did it under a pseudonym, because she was wary about more disappointing reviews. Having got the good ones, did she out herself deliberately? Who knows?”
Have you read Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling’s new book?
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