[a fool in paradise]

He’s a she???

[GreyFriar]

JK Rowlings is a man? or is Richard Brooks a woman?

[Cowboy Bob]

The article said that the book sold a wopping 1,500 copies and was a “hit.” To me 1,500 copies is a failure. Methinks that Rawlings came out with the announcement to help rescue this bomb.

[Revolting cat!]

Oh great, more penny awfuls from this graphomaniac with seven clichés per page (I counted!)!

[Flycatcher]

It's clearly a huge scoop — but how exactly did Brooks manage to crack the literary world's best-kept secret?

Literary world's best-kept secret?!

I guess it must be. I've never heard of it...

[married21]

I really liked the Harry Potter series, although I readily admit it is not literature for the ages. It’s just like in the movie industry— G-rated adventure stories can be big blockbusters. But then the makers have to try to do something more ‘grown-up’ and they go on to produce R-rated stuff that bombs.

Family entertainment will not gain you respect from snobby peers in the industry, but it will make you a ton of money if you are reasonably good at it.

[ArtDodger]

I think Stephen King pulled the same stunt with his low-selling Richard Bachman books. No one bought them for their ‘stand alone’ merits so they were linked to the big name to sell.

[wideawake]

Are people still really taken in by this low-rent, see-through “viral marketing” in 2013.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

A “mysterious tweet” just outed her, huh? I’m sure her and her publisher are devastated now that the secret’s been revealed.

[kingu]

... Hmm, there's quite a few things going on here.

First, you have a boutique imprint, by Little, Brown & Co, which typically handles under 5,000 copies at a time. This is the imprint that sold 1,500 copies on Amazon.co.uk; apparently it was the limit that Amazon could secure out of the print, all the rest of the copies were sold to book chains in the UK, which appears to be mostly sold out.

The Mulholland imprint handles worldwide distribution, and their minimum is 80,000 copies. Amazon typically commands no less than 30% of their runs, and appears to have sold out on Saturday night. The presses for Little, Brown & Co's Mulholland is running ragged, as present order window off of Amazon is 10-14 days, which means it will be the third printing if you ordered it today, or roughly 200,000 copies sold already.

So, for those who are interested in collecting books, hunt down this cover: from someone who has stock right now, and you'll likely have a book that will go up in value. Because of UK laws, this imprint does say that it is a pseudonym for the real author.

Oh, and as a side note, third printing will have the author bio of JK Rawling. First and second prints have the fake bio.

[Revolting cat!]

Check out the mysteries of Benjamin Black, alter ego of literary writer John Banville. In one interview, Banville said that as Banville he’s good for 500 words a day, and as Black for 5000.

[null and void]

Harry Potter ping!

[Revolting cat!]

[Revolting cat!]

[Ransomed]

I don’t know how twitter works, Brooks was replying on july 10 to Callegari and then the article says the account he was replying to “has no tweets since july 2.” What am I missing here?

Freegards