How did J.K Rowling become rich?

She wrote a very fun story, found an agent, and sold it to a publisher.

Now......your turn.

Yup. She worked extremely hard to write a great book.

You do realize that she didn't get a lot of money for her first book when it was sold, correct?

She got like £2500 for the Philosopher's Stone. But she was happy. She was simply happy that she got published. She didn't say any of this, by the way:

I want to be rich. I want to be a famous author. I want to sell millions of books. I want everyone to love me.

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All she did was write a good book and see what happens.

HikariDawn said:

No. But how did she get millions of people to read her books? How did she get rich if she didn't make money on her first book? I'm confused.

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She didn't GET anyone to do anything. She had a good book that people liked, and then she wrote more. Six more. She kept writing. She improved her craft. She was disciplined. She finished her whole series of 7 books in 10 years. She worked hard. Some of it was luck, but much of it was her discipline and an instinct and skills of writing a good story.

HikariDawn said:

I want to follow in her footsteps to write a book just as good as hers. I want to be a famous author.

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When you want to be a writer more than you want fame, fortune and the admiration of millions, you'll be off to a good start.

It helps to be hungry too! As I understand it, when she did get the first payment (I can't do pound thingy here) that was a godsend for her starving family. Her grace paid off with many more paydays.

Two words: Subsidiary Rights. Not only did she write a good book that people wanted to read, she had an agent who exploited the subsidiary rights attached to the book. She didn't get rich off publishing; she got rich off movie rights and her books' massive merchandising appeal.

Scott

Don't read MY book!

Queen of Swords said:

When you want to be a writer more than you want fame, fortune and the admiration of millions, you'll be off to a good start.

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True!

I can care less what the public thinks of my book. I just want it to be as good as the books I enjoy. (Does this make me crazy?)

[OK, maybe I care a little...]

And the winning numbers are... not mine!!!

I have to admit, I do refer to my first project as my 'Lottery Ticket'...

Ask not how you're going to be rich and famous. Ask "What have I written lately?"

I echo what everyone else said - she didn't do what she did to get famous or anything. She was the poor woman writing in coffee shops because she couldn't heat her apartment all day.

She wrote her story because it was living in her. She wrote because the story was important, not what would come from it.

The story is what made her rich, not really what she herself did. It was getting together with a publisher that believed in her story too.

I mean, I had never heard of Harry Potter until about the time the second book was out. My second grade teacher read the first chapter of the first book out loud to us because she loved it. I fell in love and the rest is history. It had nothing to do with JK promoting herself. Her story did it for her.

I want fame. Sure, I want to be a famous author. But I won't get there unless I have a story I believe in enough. No one will believe it if I don't. Story comes first, always.

Right now, looking at her publicity, will I make it? But I'm not sure how she got rich and all that. I'll do anything for millions of readers even if it means bleeding to death! I'm just a noob. How did she do it?

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I did a case study on these for a marketing/PR class. You can Google some information to figure out the marketing plans and strategies for each book.

Here's the thing. Like others have mentioned, yes, she wrote a great story that people wanted to read. But marketing and PR did a LOT to make it the phenomenon that it is. However, the books (story structure AND the story elements themselves) allowed marketing to do what they did. Plus, Rowling contributed a lot.

In the early years, she spent a lot of time doing book tours and readings, many of these on her own. Not only did she spend the time working on these, you can find a lot of comments about how well she interacted with her fans, how nice a person she is when it came to discussing matters with book managers. Her personality in general had a lot to do with it.

The initial spread was based on word-of-mouth. Then the sales starting coming in, and marketing took advantage of that to create some interesting PR gigs. She toured the UK in the Hogwarts Express, for example, again meeting fans and signing books.

By the time Goblet of Fire was released, she already had a big fan base and the first three books were the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

Again, marketing took advantage of this. They sent out press releases to announce the book was finished. They sent out press releases months later with chapter releases and page count. Months later, a press release with the title. Another with book art. Finally, the release date. And still more ... press releases stating that the ending of this book was so extraordinary, it was going to be printed in the dark, ensuring no spoilers.

All these press releases, JKR interviews, etc., made sure Harry Potter was staggered in newspapers, magazines and blogs in the years between releases so nobody forgot about it. Again, JKR herself was integral here. And to capitalize on all the press coverage? Midnight book release parties. They sent starter kits to bookstores encouraging them to host the parties. Everybody wanted their hands on the book at midnight, ASAP, because they were marketing this secret so well, everyone wanted to know what it was the second they could.

With the following three books, they kept up the air of mystery. Basically, each subsequent book oversold the previous--so marketing wasn't competing with other books, they were competing with themselves. They pushed themselves to do something bigger and better each time to keep the midnight sales climbing. Each book had a different campaign. The fifth book's campaign revolved around the fact someone would die. Again with the sixth. And the seventh was that it was the cap to the series--and whether or not Harry would die.

What became interesting is that in the later releases is that their campaigns focused around selling a secret--sosecret even marketing didn't know what they were working with. So they had to come up with a campaign without knowing the plots or storylines (I've done it--it's NOT easy), but it forced them to relate to the fanbase to figure out what THEY wanted. This is where the story itself comes in again--if JKR did not write the story so well to have these hooks already planted, marketing couldn't have done a thing with it. But they did, and it worked.

So, yes. Marketing and PR had a huge handle on making each book sold more than the previous one. They had a huge impact on making sure everyone was talking about Harry Potter. But the structure of Rowling's story is also a huge factor that allowed the PR teams to work creatively, and obviously interested the fans. Rowling did a lot more than just write the story, this is true. But there were also tons of people involved, including those at Scholastic (press and marketing), her personal publicist and people at her agency. Not to mention those doing press and marketing for the films that were released in between.

These are really just the basics. There's a heck of a lot more to it even still, but if I write anymore I'm going to be posting my entire paper.

She knew how to tell a good story. She understood what kids (and parents and therefore adults) like to read. She probably read a lot of other childrens books and old fairy tales. She could see what worked and she could see a gap in the market that wasn't being filled. She probably didn't think of it in marketing terms, but she must've thought about what type of story she'd like to read but which didn't exist. And then she wrote it in the back of a coffee shop while her baby slept.

If you just want to make lots of money there are more sure fire ways to do it.

You're in the wrong market if you want to be rich. I wonder if you have statistically better chance to win the lotto than pull of what JKR did.

I know I had dreams of fame and fortune when I was a kid, but they were beaten out of me as well they should, through harsh crits a good dose of common sense.

I'd say that more than wanting to be a famous writer, or even wanting to be a writer, you have to want to write.

JKR did any job she could get, waitressing, iirc, to support her family while scribbling down bits of story any little chance she could get. She did what she had to and worked a hell of a lot harder than most people ever do.

Then she sent her book out till hell wouldn't have it. And as I recall, a lot of editors wouldn't touch it at all, but one editor's kid loved it so much that they had to buy it. (Or is that urban legend?)

She had determination, persistene, and overall love for her books. And (IMO especially in books 1-3) you can tell she's writing them because she loves them. There is so much fun in them that is the author having fun. And I think that's what pulled most readers in.

Write a great story, get yourself an agent a publishing contract, and cross your fingers. Having the right book at the right time can be huge. (Not discounting the work she did promoting her books, however.)

ETA: I'm sure many of us who have replied would love a track record like JK's. I sure wouldn't complain. But I bet we would all keep writing even with no guarantee of anyone else ever reading our stories...just like she did.

Not the industry you want for money, fame, a career, etc. Easy money is hard to find in any industry--especially one which anyone who has the time to patch together a novel-length story can [attempt to] enter. Which is why so many people have visions of themselves wearing a velvet smoking jacket, sitting at a mahogany desk or leather armchair in a book-lined study, penning The Next Big Thing, which will give them fame and fortune. Many people can write. Can they write a work of fiction?

Er...

She had a story people wanted to read at the right time and place.
She had appeal to more than one group as well.

And as I recall, a lot of editors wouldn't touch it at all, but one editor's kid loved it so much that they had to buy it. (Or is that urban legend?)

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It was her agent.

I don't want to bring this down to the level of quibbling, but I do want to responsd to the comment above that it was subsidiary rights, rather than books, that made her a millionaire.
If Harry Potter has sold 375,000,000 copies worldwide, and we say that the average cover price (hardback, trade, pocket averaged) is $10 (that's low), and that the average percentage paid to Rowling is 10% (that's low also), then she has made $375,000,000 from the books alone. So...the books made her a millionaire many times over, in addition to what she made from books, toys, etc.

"How did J.K Rowling become rich?"

Imagination and love of literature.

"I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared."

"One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality."

http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

AndrewHallOnline said:

I don't want to bring this down to the level of quibbling, but I do want to responsd to the comment above that it was subsidiary rights, rather than books, that made her a millionaire.
If Harry Potter has sold 375,000,000 copies worldwide, and we say that the average cover price (hardback, trade, pocket averaged) is $10 (that's low), and that the average percentage paid to Rowling is 10% (that's low also), then she has made $375,000,000 from the books alone. So...the books made her a millionaire many times over, in addition to what she made from books, toys, etc.

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The two support each other. Would there be such high sales without all the hype and promotion--including subsidiary rights? Probably not.

She still would have sold many, many copies. She would still have made a big name for herself and secured a fortune. But she probably wouldn't have sold 375,000,000.

She wrote for love, and she found others who loved it too. Her YA novel found its way into the hands of adults who enjoyed it as well--enlarging her readership base. She cares about her characters and she grew as a writer, improving and finding new ideas to put into each subsequent book. Her 'overnight' success took well over a decade.