So, J.K. Rowling decided to use a pen name (Robert Galbraith) to write her new series of crime novels, the first being The Cuckoo’s Calling. And, if I’m not mistaken, she was a little upset when her lawyer’s wife (?) spilled the beans that it was her.
However, my new thought is: If she wanted her pen name to stay a secret then why not do things on her own? Why did she involve so many people (and their wives)? Why not hire a freelance editor – a really good one. It’s not like she’s strapped for cash to hire out. She could have even paid one she already knew on the side. Cash only. Whathaveyou. She could have afforded to advertise on websites apart from a publisher’s initiative. She had so many options. What’s more, she could have used her pen name to get all the business aspects done and no one would have blinked an eye. No one really knows who they’re working with online [speaking from experience (cough, cough)]. She is certainly smart enough to have done it on her own. She self-published the Harry Potter ebooks, technically. She knows how it works.
Maybe it was in her contract that her next novel(s) go to her previous publisher/agent. Maybe she was just lazy. Maybe she meant for it all to be a publicity stunt. Maybe she hates self-publishing and self-publishers. Maybe she already HAS self-published a novel under another pen name and got it right that time and WE WILL NEVER KNOW SHE’S REALLY THE ONE WHO WROTE IT.
Conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy.
But seriously, why?
-Gabs
[“BLA and GB Gabbler” (really just a pen name – singular) are the Editor and Narrator behind THE AUTOMATION, vol. 1 of the Circo del Herrero series. They are on facebook, twitter, tumblr, goodreads, and Vulcan’s shit list.]
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