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The Billion-Dollar Author: Harry Potter’s J. K. Rowling Is Born

Article Overview: “I was very low and I had to achieve something,” recalls Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling. “Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad.”

The Billion-Dollar Author: Harry Potter’s J. K. Rowling Is Born

“I was very low and I had to achieve something,” recalls Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling. “Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad.”

Rowling was a single mother living on welfare. Working as a secretary was not how she had envisioned her life. She had admittedly reached her own personal rock bottom. Without even enough money to pay the electricity bill, Rowling knew she had to do something to provide a better life for her baby daughter. But what, she wondered. The answer came to her while riding the train one day; that was when Harry Potter came to life. Today, with over 325 million book sales, the Potter series has not only spawned a worldwide reading revolution, but has taken Rowling off of welfare and turned her into a billionaire.

Joanne Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England. Along with her older sister, the Rowling girls developed an affinity for story telling. They also developed an affinity for rabbits and begged their parents to get them one. In Rowling’s attempts to convince her parents, she wrote a story called “Rabbit.” She was just six years old, but the story set Rowling on a new path.

The story revolved around a rabbit that got the measles and visited his friend, a giant bee by the name of Miss Bee. “Ever since Rabbit and Miss Bee, I have wanted to be a writer,” says Rowling, “though I rarely told anyone so. I was afraid they’d tell me I didn’t have a hope.”

Rowling never got her pet rabbit. Instead, her family moved to Tutshill, a town near England’s border with Wales. Both of Rowling’s parents, originally from London, had always wanted to live in the countryside. Finally, at Tutshill, their dream had come true. Rowling, too, loved her new home, which allowed her to spend hours alone wandering in the fields. “The only fly in the ointment was the fact that I hated my new school,” she says.

Tutshill Primary was an old-fashioned school with a teacher who scared the students. From there, Rowling moved onto Wyedean Comprehensive School. “I was quiet, freckly, short-sighted and rubbish at sports,” she recalls. Still, Rowling found friends through her ability to tell fantastical lunchtime stories. And yet, even through university, Rowling did not focus seriously on her writing as anything more than a hobby.

Rowling attended Exeter University where she majored in French. Her parents had advised her that bilingualism would help her succeed as a secretary. “Unfortunately, I am one of the most disorganized people in the world,” she says. Upon graduation, Rowling did in fact become a secretary, working for Amnesty International. It was not her dream job but it did allow her to do one thing: use the computer to type up her own stories during her breaks. It would not be long before Rowling could find herself focusing on nothing but her stories.

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Article Tags: baby daughter, better life, billionaire, electricity bill, enough money, fly in the ointment, giant bee, gloucestershire england, harry potters, j k rowling, joanne rowling, life today, living on welfare, measles, miss bee, older sister, personal rock, pet rabbit, rock bottom, single mother



Related Forum Posts
Re: What are the pros and cons of using pen names? - If you want to brand yourself then a real name is a must. If you are writing for affiliate marketing than using a pen name can be enough. Sometimes a pen name is the only way to go, see J.K. Rowling
Re: Hi - Welcome Harry - what is your business?
Re: Should authors have a monopoly over their work? - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":259l8osu] While authors maybe should have a monopoly over their work, I'm not sure that RDR Books is doing anything illegal. RDR Books isn't promoting that their "Harry Potter Lexicon" is an "Official" reference and customers can choose if they want to waste their money on an unofficial and possibly inaccurate compilation. For instance, on MuchMusic, they have this stupid program called "The Totally Untrue History of ...." where they spend 30 minutes telling lies about a music star's life history just for fun. However, a music celebrity who is featured on the show can't sue MuchMusic for slander or using their "image" without authorization because it's considered a "review" and they've advertised that their show is fake anyways. Either way, I wouldn't waste a penny on an official or unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia since I can get the information for free on the Web.[/quote:259l8osu] There are many many people who will buy it because it is about Harry Potter and they want a copy. If they didn't think it would sell they wouldn't have put the work into putting it together and getting it released. If your comment were true for the majority of people, then ebooks would sell much better - they are far less expensive (in most cases) than print books and you can access thousands online for free. Shri
Re: VALUE = ROI / Price (Cost) or Opportunty Spent - [quote="Takuya":ra8u6vda]OK, but what many people do not realize is.... just because the "free offer" is relevant, or we didn't pay money for the message, it still costs our opportunity to be just paying attention to it. Here is a scenario, I get a phone call from a stranger who knows nothing about me. Without asking me for a permission, just because their FREE message is relevant to what I do, they assume they're doing me a favor by approaching me with their promotion.[/quote:ra8u6vda] Hi Takuya, While I understand your position, I think you're straying off topic from what Andy and I interpret as "giving value first" and asking for nothing in return. If you try to help a potential client by simply offering your related service or products for free, then that's self-serving because you're trying to make the sale. And no one likes cold callers. A good example of offering value first would be: -I want to connect with Business Author ABC. -The next step would be to find out how I could help (and NOT by trying to sell my product or service). -Let's say I learn that this author wants publicity for his/her new book, so I introduce Business Author ABC to an influential person in the book/publishing industry like Oprah and ask for nothing in return. -Then Business Author ABC would want to connect with me and want to learn what I do for a living. -And in the future, Business Author ABC would want to help me in the future if need be. It's as easy as that.
My reading log - Hi OmnivoreInk, Before starting my business, I read the following books as research: -"The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki -"The AdSense Code" by Joel Comm -"Don't Think Pink" and "Mind Your X's and Y's" by Lisa Johnson And since then I've continued my "research" by reading (in this order): -"Technical Tennis" by Rod Cross -"For One More Day" by Mitch Albom -"The Twits" by Roald Dahl -"Little Black Book of Connections" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne -"The Profitable Retailer" by Doug Fleener -"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell -"Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis -"Little Green Book of Getting Your Way" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling And I'm currently reading and am in the process of finishing the following: -"There's No Such Thing as Public Speaking" by Jeanette and Roy Henderson -"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell -"The Book of Tells" by Peter Collett -"Little Red Book of Sales Answers" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Chocolates on the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience" by Jonathan M. Tisch -"The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron -"The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey


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