A Writer’s Life For most authors writing is only part of the process After finishing a book an author sends the book to an agent or publisher Sometimes the author has to send a book to many people before he or she finds someone who likes it Once a book is accepted it goes through more steps before being published When a book is finally published its success is decided by the public Rowling was rejected 12 times before she found a publisher But the public loved her work They made Harry Potter a great success a single mom trying desperately to pay her bills But she was also a writer She continued to make notes write and map out a total of seven Harry Potter books By the late 1990s Rowling had finished the first Harry Potter book It was rejected by numerous publishers But in 1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in England The publisher thought young boys would not want to read a book by a woman They asked Rowling to shorten her name to hide her gender
A girl tests a wand at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando Florida Joanne Rowling became J K Rowling The K is for Kathleen It was Rowling’s grandmother’s name The next year Rowling’s book was published in the United States The title was changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Harry and his friends were a smashing success in both England and the
Rowling’s Harry Potter stories include a play called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child United States Two more books quickly followed In 2001 the first book became a movie By 2011 the Harry Potter series included seven books and eight movies The public had waited eagerly for each new title Sometimes they stood in long lines or waited overnight to buy the newest book The books have sold more than 450 million copies
AFTER HARRY POTTER Although the Harry Potter series is finished Rowling has written other books Some are about Harry Potter’s world But in 2012 Rowling published her first book for adults It is called The Casual Vacancy The book has been translated into 44 languages and adapted for British television In 2013 Rowling began writing crime novels under a pen name Robert Galbraith The novels feature a private detective who is a war veteran The Careers in Writing Not all writers write the same kinds of things People who write stories for adults are called novelists Writers who write poetry are poets A playwright writes plays for the stage A screenwriter writes scripts for movies People who write for children are children’s authors There are also many types of specialty writing But all writers have one thing in common They all want to communicate through their writing first novel received mixed reviews Some people liked it but others did not At first no one knew Rowling
