Courtesy of the Huffington Post, I just came across this marvelous article about everybody’s favorite wizard: How Harry Potter Saved Young Adult Fiction. Any writer who dreams of publishing (you?) needs to read it.
Heck – you should read it even if you’re not thinking about publishing. The article is fun (who isn’t interested in the amazing story of J.K. Rowling’s blockbusters?). And you’ll get an education about aspects of the publishing business that most people don’t think about.
For example: how important is it to be original? Not important at all – and (when you come right down to it) downright impossible. “No one is totally original,” said a bookshop owner quoted in the article. “Everyone builds on everyone else’s stories.”
Although it feels like the Harry Potter books are a brand-new type of literature, Rowling was building on familiar genres: books about boarding schools, nasty step-parents, difficult teachers, kids-who-don’t-fit-in, and much more. Everything that seems to make the Harry Potter books so new and special had already been done – and done well – many times before (even wizarding schools!).
Nobody really knows what made the Harry Potter books such a spectacular success. When you think about it – that’s good news. It gives you and me permission to give a new twist to familiar themes and plots. Go for it!
Another useful point is that the Harry Potter books taught the publishing world an important lesson. Before Harry came along, publishers avoided fantasy books for young people, believing they just wouldn’t sell. (The first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it found a publisher.) Since then there’s been a revival of fantasy, with older series (including my favorites, the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis) selling well and being adapted for stage, screen, and TV.
And that leads to another important point: The readers who bought the Harry Potter books went on to buy other fantasy books as well. Everyone made money.
So – thank you, J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter!
Non Sequitur Cartoon: The wife says to the frazzled husband, surrounded by crumpled papers at his desk, “Hey, I was just looking at the New York Times Best Seller List and thought maybe you should try writing one of those.” It should be so easy!
If an author aspires to being published, has a great, timely idea, writes well, they still have to be doggedly persistent and good at sales. Based on the Harry Potter phenomenon, it would seem that publishers don’t know what a best seller is when they see it.
I think you’re right! I know that heads rolled when publishers who’d passed on the first “Harry Potter” book realized what they’d done.