J.K. Rowling and the Uses of Fame

The business of publishing is, in many respects, not a business in the classical sense.  It's a business only in the way that show business is a business--in other words, trying to predict and manage its profitability is a capricious and unreliable undertaking (or business!)  Breakout books constantly surprise the editors and agents--and probably even the writers--who are responsible for them. Books that should sell don't, and books that will be forgotten in ten years do.  Badly written books sell millions of copies, and beautifully composed literary novels sell in the hundreds.  It's showbiz, and nothing influences it more than the weight of a famous name.

So a new detective series, beginning with the title The Cuckoo's Calling, was published by one unknown writer named Galbraith.  It was considered "acclaimed"--which to the publishing insider means, respected but not successful.  Sales lagged.  Hardcovers gathered dust in warehouses, and the publisher must have been worried.

Then, as everyone who follows books by now no doubt knows, someone "leaked" (the use of quotation marks here is deliberate) the truth about the author:  it was J. K Rowling.  Faux outrage erupted over the leak of this big secret! but the book shot to the top of the mystery list on Amazon.com.  Suddenly a book that was failing, as many, many of the 200,000 + titles produced every year do, was an enormous success.

I understand, and I would guess most of my colleagues do, as well.  We don't blame Rowling for this at all.  Every writer wants her work to sell well, to get its chance, to find its readership.  We all do everything we can think of to give our novels their opportunity in the marketplace, and if a famous name attached to it will help, we'll use it.  I think that's what happened here, and it doesn't hurt anyone that it did.  Fortunately, if one book sells well, its success doesn't harm another book that's not selling so well.

Do we care about sales?  Yes, for a variety of reasons, but principally--at least for me--because it means we can go on doing the work we love.  We're allowed to continue creating stories and characters and worlds, and seeing them come to life in print.

If we've been publishing for a time, though, I think we have to accept that this is showbiz.  It's damnably hard to control, and the public is wilful in its choice of which product--book or movie or song or play--to single out for its full attention.  If the revelation of a famous name attached to the product does the trick, then blessings!  There's nothing to be ashamed of in using every tool at our disposal to boost the work.

I'd prefer, though, that we don't pretend.