JK Rowling: How A Broke Mother Became Worth Millions - Yahoo Singapore Finance

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Sun, 15 Mar 2015, 10:23 SGT - Singapore Markets closed

JK Rowling: How A Broke Mother Became Worth Millions

Harry Potter took Joanne Rowling from living hand-to-mouth to one of the wealthiest women in the
world

Emma Lunn Sat, Mar 14, 2015 1:33 AM SGT

J.K. Rowling (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

It was on a delayed train from Manchester to London in 1990 that the idea of boy wizard Harry Potter popped into Joanne
Rowlings mind. She got home to her Clapham flat and started to write.
And write and write and write. Rowlings is a true rags to riches story. It took her seven years to finish Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone. During this time her mother died, she got divorced, move to Edinburgh and lived in relative poverty.
She famously wrote chunks of Harry Potter in Edinburghs cafes while her young daughter Jessica slept in her pram. Even
with her fertile imagination, she couldnt have imagined how her life would change when the bespectacled orphan wizard
waved his magic wand.
The seven fantasy novels have become the best-selling book series in history and austerity is now a distant memory for
Rowling who is worth an estimated 570million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
In 1997 after finishing the manuscript for the first Harry Potter book on an old typewriter, Rowling was taken on by
Christopher Little Literary Agents. The book was subsequently submitted to 12 publishing houses and rejected by them all.

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JK Rowling: How A Broke Mother Became Worth Millions - Yahoo Singapore Finance

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It wasnt until eight-year-old Alice Newton, daughter of publishing house Bloomsburys chairman, read the first chapter of
Harry Potter and demanded the next that Rowling was offered a publishing deal. The contract included a mere 2,500
advance.
Bloomsbury editor Barry Cunningham advised Rowling to get a day job as there was no money in childrens books. It was
also decided to use the initials JK, instead of Joanne, in case boys were put off buying a book about a boy wizard written by
a woman.
Bloomsbury did an initial print run of 1,000 copies, 500 of which were distributed to libraries. These copies are worth
between 16,000 and 25,000 today.

Harry Potter - More than 450 million copies sold since J.K. Rowling introduced the world to
Harry, Hermoine and

Pottermania soon gripped the nations youth. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won several awards and in early
1998 an auction was held in the US for the rights to publish the novel. It was won by Scholastic for $105,000 (70,000)
the first indication that the Harry Potter series was set to become a major moneyspinner.
The next six books Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999),
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), Harry Potter and the HalfBlood Prince (2005), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) all went on to break sales records.
Pottermania took the cinema by storm too. October 1998 saw Warner Bros purchase the film rights to the first two novels
for a seven-figure sum. The contract included various stipulations from Rowling including that the films be shot in the UK
with a British cast.
The Harry Potter series went on to become the highest-grossing film series of all time and made millionaires of child actors
Daniel Radcliffe (Potter) , Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ronald Weasley).

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JK Rowling with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint at the World Premiere of
Harry Potter and the Deathly

In 2004 Forbes reported that Rowling was a US dollar billionaire. Rowling herself disputed the figures and Forbes later
removed her from the billionaire list, claiming the high tax rate in the UK and Rowlings charitable donations, meant she
wasnt a billionaire after all.
Shrewdly, Rowling held on to the digital rights for her work and the Harry Potter series wasnt available electronically until
2011, 14 years after the first book was published. By retaining the rights and selling ebooks through her own platform
Pottermore.com, Rowling has made much more money from digital sales than if shed signed over the digital rights to
either Bloomsbury or Scholastic.
Developed by digital creative agency Think, in close partnership with Rowling and sponsored by Sony, Pottermore.com tells
unknown parts of the Harry Potter story in an interactive way and also sells Harry Potter ebooks and audiobooks.
According to the Company Check website, Pottermore.com has a net worth of about 10million. Since Harry Potter,
Rowling has gone on to write novels aimed at adults including The Casual Vacancy which was published in 2012 and is now
a TV series. The plot centres on Pagford, a seemingly idyllic English village, where behind the faade is a community at war.
In 2013 Little Brown published The Cuckoos Calling as a debut by author Robert Galbraith. A Sunday Times investigation
revealed this to be a pseudonym used by Rowling. Within days of the revelation sales of the book rose 4,000%.
So, what has Rowling spent her money on? Shes a well-known philanthropist and established the Volant Charitable Trust
in 2000. The charity uses its annual budget of 5.1 million to combat poverty and social inequality. In 2005 she founded
Lumos, a charity which helps orphans and disadvantaged children. Also, after being exposed as the true author of The
Cuckoo's Calling, Rowling donated all her royalties to the Army Benevolent Fund,
Now re-married to Neil Murray, and a mother of three, Rowling owns an estate in Scotland and a home in London.

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JK Rowling: How A Broke Mother Became Worth Millions - Yahoo Singapore Finance

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