If JK Rowling Cares About Writing, She Should Stop Doing It
I didn’t much mind Rowling when she was Pottering about. I’ve never read a word (or seen a minute) so I can’t comment on whether the books were good, bad or indifferent. I did think it a shame that adults were reading them… But, then again, any reading is better than no reading, right? But The Casual Vacancy changed all that.
In one single post, never have I read a more petty, vitriolic blaming of one writer for another writer’s failings. For those who don’t have time to read, it boils down to novelist Lynn Shepard calling out J.K. Rowling for dominating sales charts based on her name alone, citing “A Casual Vacancy” and “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and their massive sales successes as preventing other authors from having a chance with readers. The problem with this is that Ms. Rowling had to establish herself once upon a time by writing this little-known book called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She’s since well earned her name recognition, and even went to the degree of writing “Cuckoo” under a pseudonym just so it wouldn’t sell based on her name alone. Of course, details leak, but that’s not the point. The point is that the author of this article is bitter towards someone who worked hard and struggled to make their paycheck based on writing, for the love of writing and the want to write, who now justifiably can enjoy the name recognition she has rightfully earned. No artist, be they author or painter or otherwise, deserves this kind of treatment of their proven talent behind the creative wheel.
