"If JK Rowling Cares About Writing, She Should Stop Doing It"

[alchemate]

I tend to think that there will always be room for good writing. If anyone has a problem with J.K. its well-established authors that had releases dates close to hers. I'm sure other publishers don't really like her because she eats up their sales for a week or two after her book comes out. But in no way is she hurting the up-and-coming published writer or the well-established indie writer, so who cares.

 

[Laeraneth]

The people who buy a book purely because it is known, popular, and 'in the public consciousness' enough that everyone knows about it, aren't the sort to browse for new authors.
I highly doubt that the sudden appearance of the something like 50 Shades of Grey (for an obvious example) will have had any impact on the sales of a new and aspiring author, quite simply because it became popular because of the huge coverage. If that hadn't happened, the millions of people who bought it wouldn't have been roaming bookshops looking for a good read, they would have been carrying on with their normal lives, just as oblivious of the charms of a good book as they were the week before.

Rowling is obviously a slightly different matter, but the end result is probably better for authors as a whole.
The first book isn't great (personal opinion only! ) but it's definitely readable and entertaining enough to read and enjoy, especially for the younger audience that it is targeted at. If that, and it's subsequent explosion of publicity, brought in thousands of people who would never think to roam the bookshop for a story, then great! When they put down that book, there's a much greater chance of them looking for another similar good read than there is them just going "okay, that's done." and going back to not reading again.

As Bowler1 says, if you happen to get published the same week that "Harry Potter: the next generation" gets released... well... ****... that's some pretty awful luck, but that's no more Rowling's fault than it would be the fault of a postman who delivers bad news in the mail. She might not have the same desperate need to earn a living that an aspiring new author does, but she has exactly the same right to write the stories she wants to tell.

In short, Lynn Shepherd in the HP (irony...) is probably just feeling entirely natural and understandable jealousy, but chose to lash out publicly online. Which is likely to make her look a right tool, and lose her a lot more readers than the next JK Rowling release will!

(Of course, it might also be that it's a calculated attempt to generate publicity for herself, get her name out there, and increase her future sales... they DO say there's no such thing as bad publicity!)

 

[purple_kathryn]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that JKR is popular or just that people simply want to buy books from an author whose works they have previously enjoyed. I probably would've read the casual vacancy if it had been fantasy orientated


or for example I like the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher so I've just started with the first Codex Alera books. The same goes for Karen Miller/K E Mills. I'm bound to get something I don't like but ifor me it's merely a case "ooh I like something this author has written I wonder if I will enjoy something different they have written"

 

[RcGrant]

What a load of old crap. I'm pretty sure back in his day Dickens didn't prevent other writers being published simply because he was popular.

As an aside, I really enjoyed The Casual Vacancy. Then again, I work for a parish Council and could appreciate the accuracy of the characters she portrayed.