As mentioned earlier, JK Rowling is the author of some incredible books that have been featured in this article as well as many others. She even earned her place among the prestigious Newberry Award winners for her book series The Casual Vacancy.
But how did she become famous? What made people start talking about her work?
Her success comes not only from writing good stories, but also marketing herself to different audiences.
She knows what works for her and will use it to promote her books!
In this article you’ll learn several ways she marketed herself and what worked for her. These include: keeping up with other writers, joining groups and forums, creating your own group or community, using social media effectively, responding to questions and comments, and staying active yourself.
As we mentioned before, Harry Potter is not just one story — it’s an entire franchise! Since its initial publication in 1997, JK Rowling has published six more books in the series, as well as two prequel novels that take place before Hogwarts.
Her last novel was The Deathly Hallows in 2011, which concluded the saga of wizarding world hero Harry Potter. She then took some time off to focus on other projects, including writing the script for the Fantastic Beasts film trilogy and working on new stories.
Since she made such a successful career out of children’s literature, many people have asked how she managed to achieve this success when she wrote her first book at nineteen years old!
She answered these questions herself in an interview with Time Magazine in 2017. You can read his quote here- https://time.com/4822201/jk-rowling-success-childrens-literature/.
After graduating with honors from Harvard University, where she studied English literature, author J.K. Rowling left home to pursue her dreams of writing.
Rowling’s career took off when she self-publish The Pottermore Story in 2010 as an interactive online novel. Since then, she has published 14 novels — all bestsellers.
Her most recent work is the horror series The Darkest Powers. She also wrote five books under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
After graduating with her degree in English from University of Liverpool, England, she worked as an assistant for a publisher before quitting to pursue writing full time. In 1989, just one year after starting out as a writer, she founded Pottermore, her own digital platform where you can read all seven books in The Harry Potter series and get some extra material.
It is very likely that without Pottermore, we would not know who wrote or published the first few chapters of each book! Since it launched in late 2011, it has gathered over 200 million unique readers across its various platforms.
Her success comes down to her being able to create characters people relate to and then developing their stories through interactions between them. This way, even if you have read the book already, there is still plenty to learn about these characters.
She also knows how to keep secrets… well, almost always! While many writers are known for keeping themselves private individuals, she frequently does the opposite by sharing intimate information about herself and her life.
This creates interest in what she says, and thus more followers (and money!).
After leaving Hogwarts, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows revealed what happened to his godfather Sirius Black. We find out in the book that he was murdered by Lord Voldemort!
Harry is left with this revelation as he walks down an empty corridor of the castle. He hears someone scream and turns around to see who it is. When he does not see anyone there, he realizes something is wrong.
He runs back into the room where he last saw Professor Dumbledore and finds him dead. As he picks up his wand to do some kind of spell, the door opens and another person comes in. It is Umbridge, one of Albus’s most powerful enemies.
She looks confused at first but then she recognizes Harry and starts pointing her wand directly at him. Before she can say or do anything else, a large flash of light cuts off her mouth. She disappears without a trace!
It is later learned that she was hit by lightning while trying to use magic. Her body could not process how to use dark magic quickly enough and so she died.
As mentioned earlier, you can’t write your own story unless you’re willing to be written about for the rest of your life. And even then, people will still know what you did because it’s in writing, but they won’t really understand it.
With that said, how did author J.K. Rowling become famous? By writing her book “Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone” she provided an answer to that question.
By creating rich characters who experience dramatic highs and lows, go after things you want, and learn from past mistakes, we are inspired to do the same. We read her books and we feel motivated to be more like Harry or Ron or Ginny Weasley!
Her stories also teach us about friendship, love, and family. She covers all of these pretty heavily in her novels and I have learned so much from them.
When she wrote her first novel, she never expected to be successful at writing. She spent years trying to get published before someone gave her a chance and now she is one of the most well-known authors alive!
She set a goal and achieved it. If you have a dream, work hard towards it and believe in yourself, you will succeed. She proved this by taking many chances and not letting others tell her she was too young or not talented enough.
As mentioned earlier, you can’t write a book about magic without people thinking of it as magical. So when she did in 1998, she already had a ton of exposure.
Her first novel was published six years prior so there were already many stories about how her characters used spells to solve problems. People knew that wizards existed and that they usually look good while doing them.
So even though The Gobstones is not technically a fantasy story, most readers would assume that what she wrote must be at least somewhat fantastical.
This helps her second argument hold more weight — she knows her genre well!
She also makes sure to include some element of humor which definitely adds to the appeal. Her writing is very witty so adding some laughs always raises interest.
Overall, this article showed us how Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling made the transition from writer to media superstar. By being familiar with her own field, she shaped her career perfectly.
After graduating with her degree in English, Rowling spent several years working in various capacities for educational publishing companies before she was able to return to writing full time. In 1997, just one year after completing The Sorcerer’s Stone, she published what would become her first bestseller — an easy-to-read novel that focused on young adults and featured characters such as Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.
The book, titled Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, follows Newt Scamander, an obscure but well-respected magical creature who works at the International Magical Trade Bureau in New York City. When he is assigned the task of smuggling some rare magic creatures out of Europe, he brings along his personal collection of folklore and wizarding artifacts.
As readers learn throughout the course of the story, these beasts are more than meets the eye – they're actually sentient beings! And the most powerful ones can be exploited for great wealth and power.
After graduating from university, she worked as an editorial writer for two newspapers before quitting to focus full-time on writing. In fact, her first professional sale was of a manuscript that would later be made into the best selling book series The Harry Potter Series!
In 1996, one year after finishing the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling submitted the work to Scholastic Press, then publisher of children’s books. They accepted it and published it in June 1997.
Since then, the author has maintained a steady stream of income by creating more stories within the Harry Potter universe. She also publishes other novels under various pseudonyms.
Rowling now makes enough money to live comfortably, even though she doesn’t actively market or promote herself. Rather, her success is attributed to her talent as a storyteller and journalist, along with savvy business practices.
