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Unit 22
Society and Culture
This is mysterious. A crime novel called The Cuckoo’s
What It Takes to be a
Bestseller ?
Calling sold only about 1,500 copies in the first three months after being published. Yet, this changed overnight with the revelation of the book’s actual author ― a surge 5
of orders on Amazon lifted it from 5,076th place to top of the sales chart! What on earth was the magic potion? Mystery unraveled: it was written by J. K. Rowling, under a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. Like her record-breaking Harry Potter novel series, The
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Cuckoo’s Calling was turned away by several firms before finally hitting the market. Orion Publishing’s fiction editor Kate Mills was among those who admitted to rejecting the story. She thought the work was “perfectly decent, but quiet” and confessed she could not find a unique selling-point for it in a crowded market. Cathy
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Rentzenbrink, a reviewer for trade magazine The Bookseller, revealed that she had read only one chapter before ditching The Cuckoo’s Calling. However, Publisher’s Weekly and the few other outlets gave the novel positive reviews. But the author’s assured style and skill at describing women’s clothes and people’s
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appearances led The Sunday Times to speculate that an established female novelist might be behind the book. Further detective work uncovered the fact that Galbraith and Miss Rowling shared the same publisher and editor, David Shelley. Rowling finally confessed to being the author. “David Shelley had been ‘a true
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partner in this crime,’ ” she said. In fact, it isn’t the first time Rowling has changed her name to publish her work. In 2012, her first novel for adults ― The Casual Vacancy ― was published under a pseudonym as well. “It has been wonderful to get feedback under a different name,” Rowling
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said in a statement. Rowling’s “liberating” act has indeed caused quite a stir in the publishing industry. In a tweet, one bookstore in Oxford joked: “SPECIAL OFFER: For today only, ALL of our
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books were written by J. K. Rowling!”
