JK Rowling has started promoting her new novel, ‘The Casual Vacancy’, which is an adult murder mystery set to a backdrop of an election. The book will have a huge opening, no doubt, due to Rowling’s appeal as an author and the everlasting popularity of the Harry Potter series. It will remain to be seen if it is as critically acclaimed and universally beloved, although it’s a very tough benchmark to cross.
In an interview with the Guardian, Rowling talks about finding the right editor for the book, and what she feels about reader and critic expectation. She said in a 2005 interview, “"The first thing I write post-Harry could be absolutely dreadful and, you know, people will buy it. So you're left with this real insecurity.”
Now, she says, “But it's true, isn't it? Absolutely, that was my worst nightmare. The moment I said I'd finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who'd got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I'd written Harry Potter. That would have been why.
"But I was really lucky on this, because I had a meeting with David Shelley, who's now my editor, without him knowing there was a book. So we just had a conversation, and I could tell he was really on my wavelength. So then I sort of vaguely mentioned what I might have, without saying it's virtually finished. There was no auction. It was just a great way to find an editor."
She also adds that she doesn’t really care how the book sells, saying, “"I'm not being snotty about that, but I feel quite disconnected from that sort of expectation."
