Does page count, reviews matter?

[Ursa major]

The idea that this would never have come out is a rather far-fetched one. (One could imagine that the publishers are happy the news is out, but not from them.)

 

[thaddeus6th]

It's ironic that it's easier for an author to get publicity (even if they don't want it!) the less they need it.

Bit like celebrities getting stuff for free, when people scraping a living would appreciate such far more.

 

[Venusian Broon]

The idea that this would never have come out is a rather far-fetched one. (One could imagine that the publishers are happy the news is out, but not from them.)

That's the way I looked at it when I heard the story.

The differences with the Stephen King/Bachman case are interesting - in that case it appears the publishers were afraid of flooding the market with King books, so they allowed him to publish under a pseudonym to allow him to publish more than one book a year. It then took about seven years before someone found proof. Also Bachman's sales were pretty good - if he'd been a real author he wouldn't be rich, but he'd have had an ok income. (admitedly there was conjecture that Bachman was King, so that might have been pulling up the sales - but I don't think they were any where near where the proper King books were selling.)

Even if this was a JK Rowling vanity project that she wanted to keep under wraps for as long as possible, the temptation from the publishers to 'accidently' let the secret out must have been enormous. (not saying they actually did, just speculating...)

 

[HareBrain]

JKR revealed this morning the source of the leak.

 

[Boneman]

Oooh...oooh.... great marketing idea! When your book is released, twitter the Times and tell them that author (uou) is really a pseudonym for JKR, or Stephen King or Jeffrey Archer , and watch the sales increase exponentially!!

ps: I think Russell's just lost a client...

 

[Ursa major]

I hope JKR isn't going to get too precious over all this (as opposed to being disappointed about the disclosure). She's a novelist - a very successful genre novelist - who's written a novel in a different genre. Just as she did with her previous novel.

She isn't a Prime Minister found to be secretly writing porn, or a literary writer found to be writing in a hated genre ("No, it's speculative fiction" or "Yes, a crime is solved, but the book is a psycho-sociological examination of a very particularly milieu, a Cambridge college, not a sordid police procedural").

JKR's reputation will in no way be undermined, unless the book is poorly written compared to her more famous works (which, it seems, it isn't).