Monday, July 15, 2013

J.K. Rowling wrote The Cuckoo's Calling under pseudonym Robert Galbraith


SO apparently The Cuckoo's Calling was actually written by J.K. Rowling

“I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.” J.K. Rowling said to the Sunday Times of London 

But since this book has been out since April with only 139 ratings on Goodreads & 64 on Amazon, I'm sure at least the publisher was ready to spill the beans so they can make some cash!

 Are you planning to read it?

Here's a snippet from Hatchette Audio

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe or maybe not. I don't like read novels about crime or detectives but then again, J.K. Rowling! I heard that the publisher is ordering a reprint with the author's biography inside stating that it is actually her. A part of me kind of feels bad that her secret was spilled. She could always start this again with a smaller, quieter indie publisher, I guess.

Donna said...

@Sydney

I'm not surprised they're ordering a reprint. They are not going to let a marketing opportunity like that slip by, her brand is the biggest selling point. I like that she is consistently trying to branch out and explore other genres in her writing, but I'll be happy to see her get back to writing YA characters since even in Casual Vacancy, she wrote them so very well.

Sam (Realm of Fiction) said...

I didn't even think when I found out about this. I just ordered a copy straight away (without even bothering to find out what it was about), and I guess that pretty much reflects the power of her name. Were you around when the news broke? I was on Twitter and my feed went absolutely crazy.

Seeing as though I couldn't even get through The Casual Vacancy, I'm not going to force myself to read this one if it doesn't work out the first time. I only really just want to own it, more to satisfy the obsessive fangirl in me than anything. Which is quite silly, admittedly, but it's true. :)

And yes, I'd love to see her return to YA or Children's one day. Even just the thought of that is enormously exciting.

Christina Reads YA said...

I am so ready to read this. I bought it as soon as I heard the news. I still haven't read The Casual Vacancy yet, and would definitely, definitely love it if she wrote something more like HP again... but still.

"I'm sure at least the publisher was ready to spill the beans so they can make some cash!"

Yeah. It makes me sad though that there are some people who are rating the book on Amazon just for that though. Or just for it being JK Rowling. Yeah, I'll buy the book because it's her, but if I haven't read it, why rate it?

Donna said...

@Sam (Realm of Fiction)

Nope I wasn't on Twitter, I'm rarely on Twitter. I joined Triberr which auto-shares posts for me but I am more a Facebooker than a Twitterer. So I had no idea until today about all of the hullabaloo.

I ended up liking The Casual Vacancy even though it was slow and such a departure from HP. I'm definitely interested to hear this on audio! The snippet sounds great.

I am determined that she will at least write YA again even if she doesn't revisit the magical world of Hogwarts.

Donna said...

@Christina (Christinareadsya)

I wish people wouldn't rate books, bad or good, before reading them. I think it is fine to add the books to a shelf and comment on them but not leave a star rating.

Of course I'll be buying it too. Her name is her brand and simply speaking, it sells books. She doesn't really have to "prove herself" with her writing at this point, she's got many believers. I don't blame the publishers for breaking this info though. Why settle for unknown author sales numbers if you don't have to?

Tabitha (Pabkins) said...

Nah - Not really interested - doesn't scream read me.

Donna said...

@Pabkins

I don't read a lot of those type of books either but I ended up enjoying Casual Vacancy so I trust that her writing will pull me in. Maybe you'll change your mind once the reviews start coming in. :)

Ebony McKenna. said...

I've found the whole story fascinating. I rarely read crime fiction so it would not have been on my radar.

I'm thinking along similar lines to you. While Jo Rowling might have loved the freedom of not 'needing' to prove anything by being Robert Galbraith, surely the publishers still needed to sell books. It would have been part of the plan at some point to reveal who the author really was.

Something else that struck me - the sales are modest but the reviews were all apparently really strong. Yet it didn't set the world on fire, did it? Shows how hard it is to launch a new author even when the book is getting raves.

Jen said...

It's funny. This book is now going to blow up in sales. I'm not sure if I want to read it or not. I might

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