After several years of voracious fans re-reading Harry Potter and waiting impatiently for the sometimes-enigmatic author to breath a word about her next novel, J.K. Rowling has finally announced her next novel. It’s coming from Little, Brown, doesn’t have a title, isn’t related to Harry Potter and is aimed at an adult audience. I can almost hear you salivating with unbound excitement and lust.
Via Booktrade:
“Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world. The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry’s success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life.”
Of course, we find out little-to-nothing about the book, but it’s nice nonetheless to know that Rowling’s ready to break her relative radio silence and has proceeded far enough along with the novel to sign a deal. Any guesses what type of novel she’ll write? More importantly, though, do you think she will fall victim to Stephen R. Donaldson’s theory that fans follow series around, rather than authors?
She’ll be fine for at least the first book regardless of subject. After that? She’ll have to deliver something her fans want to read or something that will attract new fans. Given the huge crossover appeal of HP to all walks of life, I don’t think either requirement will be hard to meet.
I suspect she won’t have trouble finding an audience.
it doesnt’ do all that much for me. As much as I loved the HP books, they had a lot of flaws and showed surprising little advance in Rowling’s wrting ability as they progressed. So, at the moment, her entering an adult market doesn’t get me excited.
This could change once we get an idea of what the actual book is about, but she’ll need to have become a much better writer to keep my interest. I could forgive a lot in a YA setting that I won’t be able to let slide in adult-oriented fiction.
I’m looking forward to seeing just what she’s going to be done. I enjoy her writing style and the creativity she’s shown, and knowing that she’s going to be working on something else makes me really curious!
She’ll be fine, even if her readership is halved it’s still a massive bestseller. The press release doesn’t mean she’s actually written anything however, only that she’s given some sort of an idea to the publisher who’s signed it up – maybe a 1 page outline frankly. The fact that she’s planning it is enough to get them to hand over money, but once they do they can’t hide how much they’ve spent for long without issuing a press release!
My take away from this is that — whatever you think of her ability — she’s a writer after all. She has absolutely no meaningful financial incentive to put out a new book that will inevitably be savaged by critics, mocked by her detractors, and sell less than her previous work, and she’s doing it anyway. That’s the mark of someone who’s doing this because her soul demands it.
God bless her, and poor bunny, I sez.
Also interesting is that she’s going through a traditional publisher, instead of self-publishing the novel. Anyone with theories on why she’s gone this route?
My guess is that she wants to support traditional publishers and bookstores. She’s already rich and while I’m sure she’s going to be paid hansomely for this, as Daniel points out above, she’s not in this for the money.
Plus which traditional publishers actually do a lot of the scut work. I’m really interested in the self-publishing opportunities and markets, and I think they can do some really exciting things. But I *really* like working with the traditional guys.