Tweet

The Start of a Reading Revolution: Harry Potter Comes To Life

Article Overview: It was 1990. J.K. Rowling was working as a bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in London. She used her off time at work to write her own stories. Though she was not a published author as of yet, she longed to be.

The Start of a Reading Revolution: Harry Potter Comes To Life

It was 1990. J.K. Rowling was working as a bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in London. She used her off time at work to write her own stories. Though she was not a published author as of yet, she longed to be.

When Rowling turned 26 years old, she decided she had had enough of her life as a secretary. She left Amnesty International and moved to Portugal to teach English. Again, this was a far cry from her dream job, but the free time it gave her allowed Rowling to begin writing a new story, one that she believed was her best story yet.

It was a story about a young boy who is sent off to wizard school. With each passing day she spent in Portugal, Rowling took more and more notes on her story, adding bits and pieces to her lead character, Harry Potter.

After marrying, having a daughter, and getting divorced all in Portugal, Rowling decided it was time to move back home. She returned to Edinburgh as a single mother and struggled to find work. Finally, she found a job as a French teacher, but still Rowling could only focus on only one thing: she wanted to finish her latest story before her teaching job began.

With her newborn in tow, Rowling spent most of her daughter’s nap times working relentlessly in coffee houses trying to piece together her book. “I knew how difficult it would be just to get a book published,” she recalls. “I was a completely unknown writer.”

Rowling had met her goal; she had finished her manuscript before beginning her new teaching job and sent it off to two different publishers. But her initial fears proved themselves warranted. Rowling’s manuscript was rejected by both publishing houses. She remained determined to see her story in print, so continued to send her manuscript off to different publishers.

In the end, a total of twelve publishers had rejected Rowling’s story. But number thirteen proved to be the lucky one. Within a few months, Rowling’s Harry Potter character had come to life between the pages of a book in England. A few months after that, the American rights to the novel were bought for a hefty sum. With that, Rowling finally quit her teaching job and decided to focus full-time on writing.

Today, the stories Rowling first wrote in coffee shops have become famous the world over as not only books, but also movies, computer games, music, and more. She is the world’s first billion-dollar author, the highest earning novelist in history, and one of only five self-made female billionaires. As of 2007, Rowling’s first six books in the seven book series have sold over 325 million copies. The final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, was the fastest-selling book of all time.

It might have been a rocky road, but Rowling’s dream of supporting herself and her child by writing stories did indeed become a reality.

Related Articles
  Part Wizard, Part Nerd, and one Heck of a Great Brand
  Lesson #5: Do Not Lose the Core Essence of Your Product
  Lesson #3: Every Spare Second Counts For Success
  The Billion-Dollar Author: Harry Potter’s J. K. Rowling Is Born
  Lesson #1: Slay the Dragons Standing In Your Way

Article Tags: amnesty international, bilingual secretary, bits and pieces, coffee houses, dream job, edinburgh, far cry, free time, french teacher, harry potter, initial fears, j k rowling, lucky one, manuscript, nap, publishers, publishing houses, single mother, teaching job, wizard school



Related Forum Posts
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
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
The Second Life Platform - Greetings! I'm not sure how many of you have heard of or are sensitive to Second Life and its related entities. However, Second Life is a fantastic platform to mimmick real life business operations in a real currency based economy. There are plenty of successful stories for creative individuals, but I'd highly suggest doing your research and appreciating Second Life for what it is, and what it isn't.
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - According to Guy Kawasaki, he says "you should only hire and keep people that you'd hustle over to and engage in a conversation...Life is too short to work with people you don't naturally like-especially in a young, small organization" ("The Art of the Start" pg 112). I think the reverse is also true and I wouldn't want to work for anyone I didn't like or want to talk to if I saw him/her outside of the office. In addition, Kawasaki also says "Steve Jobs has a saying that A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players...This trickle-down effect causes bozo explosions in companies. If there is one thing a CEO must do, it's hire a management team that is better than he is" ("The Art of the Start" pg 101). Kawasaki's quote is definitely in favor of hiring the ambitious worker, but do most CEO's even have the humility to admit that someone is better than them?
Re: The Second Life Platform - [quote="JBunion":fhe23fsu]Greetings! I'm not sure how many of you have heard of or are sensitive to Second Life and its related entities. However, Second Life is a fantastic platform to mimmick real life business operations in a real currency based economy. There are plenty of successful stories for creative individuals, but I'd highly suggest doing your research and appreciating Second Life for what it is, and what it isn't.[/quote:fhe23fsu] Hi JBunion, I've heard about the site. So are you currently a member? And more importantly, have you tried to open a store front in that virtual world?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why We MUST Reinvent The Wheel

ROSI Return on SUNK Investment

Small Business Internet Marketing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.