Books That Almost Weren ’ t Published ( Cont ’ d )
Author J . K . Rowling might be in the “ big bucks ” now , but things certainly didn ' t start out that way . Back then , Rowling was living off of government assistance , retyping complete copies of the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher ' s Stone to send out to publishers because she was too broke to have photocopies made . She kept sending off her precious typed copies of the manuscript to publishing houses , where they most likely went right into the trash .
Every one of the first several publishers she sent it to rejected it outright — all for the same reason : It was far too long for a children ' s book .
It must be noted here that the U . S . paperback edition of “ book that was too long for a children ’ s book ” was 320 pages and actually was the shortest of the series . Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix topping is nearly three times that length . So apparently , judging by the success of the series , 320 pages certainly was not too much for the fragile brains of modern children After all , they read six other , longer episodes . Total pages in the Harry Potter series — 4,224 pages .
Not ready to give up , Rowling decided she needed an agent , thumbed through a directory and chose Christopher Little because the name sounded like a character in a children ' s book . She shipped her manuscript off to his office , where an assistant tossed it straight into the rejection pile because Little felt children ' s books didn ' t make any money . No one seemed to think it was worth putting this long , oddball children ’ s book into print just to see what would happen .
Then one of those unexplainable things happened . Rowling ' s illustrations caught the eye of Little ' s assistant while she was sending out the rejection letters . At that point publishers were still rejecting Harry Potter but the assistant convinced Little to give it a try . He who signed Rowling on and shipped it off to Bloomsbury Publishing , where chairman Nigel Newton agreed to look at it as a personal favor .
Newton showed it to an actual child , something none of the others had probably done . He offhandedly tossed the manuscript to his 8-year-old daughter , and she devoured it in hours , then came back to him wanting more . He took a chance and published it . Need we say more ?
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE PUBLISHED IN THE U . S . AS HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERERS STONE
J . K . ROWLING
WRITERS ’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
PAGE
27
MAY - JUNE 2016