J.K. Rowling Articles

The Billion-Dollar Author: Harry Potter’s J. K. Rowling Is Born - Click To Read Article
“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 Start of a Reading Revolution: Harry Potter Comes To Life - Click To Read Article
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.

Lesson #1: Slay the Dragons Standing In Your Way - Click To Read Article
Today, there are hundreds of millions of Harry Potter books in print around the world. Each book in Rowling’s series has also been on The New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. But when Rowling first began to seriously pursue her writing career, the story was a much different one than that.

Lesson #2: Put a Little Magic into Your Thinking - Click To Read Article
When Rowling first approached publishers with her manuscript about a boy wizard, she was welcomed with a barrage of criticism. Many of those criticisms she could do little about. For instance, how could she make her story less fantastical when the very concept behind it was all about magic and wizardry? But there were other criticisms that Rowling took to heart and tried to fix. After all, she knew success was often times much like a game; if you wanted to reach the end, you had to play by the rules.

Lesson #3: Every Spare Second Counts For Success - Click To Read Article
“Where the idea for Harry Potter actually came from, I really couldn’t tell you,” says Rowling. “I was traveling on a train between Manchester and London and it just popped into my head. I spent four hours thinking about what Hogwarts would be like – the most interesting train journey I've ever taken. By the time I got off at King's Cross, many of the characters in the books had already been invented.”

Lesson #4: Do What You Know and Love - Click To Read Article
“I am an extraordinarily lucky person, doing what I love best in the world,” says Rowling. “I'm sure that I will always be a writer.”

Lesson #5: Do Not Lose the Core Essence of Your Product - Click To Read Article
Harry Potter is no longer just a character who comes to life in Rowling’s seven-book series. Instead, it has become a merchandising and marketing machine all on its own, pushing ahead at full throttle. And while Rowling remains in awe of the success that has been spawned by her stories, so too does she remain wary of the many attempts to capitalize on and commercialize her story of a young wizard.

Unleashing the Magic: How Potter Wrote Her Way To Billions - Click To Read Article
“The height of my ambition for these books was, well frankly, to get reviewed,” Rowling admits. “A lot of children's books don't even get reviewed – forget good review, bad review.”

J.K. Rowling Quotes - Click To Read Article
J.K. Rowling Quotes


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