D
Did you know that in 1995, Rowling finished her manuscript for
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on an old manual typewriter?
[48]
|
Alice Newton |
Did you know after
Christopher Little Literary Agents reviewed the first three chapters of
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone they
agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher?
Did you know that Rowling book was submitted to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected the manuscript?
Did you know that the decision to publish Rowling's book apparently owes much to Alice Newton, the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury’s chairman, who was given the first chapter to review by her father and immediately demanded the next?
[50]
Did you know that in June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher’s Stone with an initial print-run of 1000 copies, five hundred of which were distributed to libraries?
Did you know that Philosopher’s Stone today, such copies are valued between £16,000 and £25,000?
[54]
Did you know that Philosopher’s Stone won the
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Five months after the book was released?
Did you know that In February, the novel won the prestigious
British Book Award for
Children’s Book of the Year, and later, the Children’s Book Award?
Did you know that its sequel,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in July 1998?
[55]
Did you know that in December 1999, the third novel,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, won the Smarties Prize, making Rowling the first person to win the award three times running?
[57]
Did you know that Rowling withdrew the fourth
Harry Potter novel from contention to allow other books a fair chance to win the Smarties Prize?
Did you know that in January 2000,
Prisoner of Azkaban won the inaugural
Whitbread Children's Book of the Year award, though it lost the Book of the Year prize to
Seamus Heaney's translation of
Beowulf?[58]
Did you know that the fourth book,
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was released simultaneously in the UK and the US on 8 July 2000, and broke sales records in both countries?
Did you know that
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire sold 372,775 copies of the book were sold in its first day in the UK, almost equaling the number
Prisoner of Azkaban sold during its first year?
[59]
Did you know that in the US, the book sold three million copies in its first 48 hours, smashing all literary sales records?
[59] .
Did you know that Rowling realized there was a serious fault with the plot of Prisoner of Azkaban she rewrote 13 times, until she got it right?
Did you know that Rowling was named author of the year in the 2000 British Book Awards?
[61]
Did you know that J.K. Rowling waited three years before she released
Goblet of Fire and the fifth
Harry Potter novel,
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?
|
Half-Blood Prince |
Did you know that the sixth book,
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was released on 16 July 2005?
Did you know that the sixth book,
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, broke all sales records, selling nine million copies in its first 24 hours of release?
[64]
Did you know that in 2006,
Half-Blood Prince received the
Book of the Year prize at the
British Book Awards?
[67]
Did you know that the title of the seventh and final
Harry Potter book was revealed 21 December 2006 to be
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow?[68]
Did you know that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on 21 July 2007 (0:00
BST) and broke its predecessor's record as the fastest-selling book of all time?
[70]
Did you know that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 11 million copies in the first day of release in the United Kingdom and United States?
[70]
Did you know that Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated £7 billion ($15 billion),
[73] and the last four
Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history?
[70][74]
Did you know that the Harry Potter series, totalling 4,195 pages,
[75] has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages?
[76]
Did you know that Forbes named J.K. Rowling as the first person to become a U.S.-dollar billionaire by writing books,
[100] the second-richest female entertainer and the 1,062nd richest person in the world?
Did you know that when the Forbes first listed billionaire in 2004, Rowling disputed the calculations and said she had plenty of money, but was not a billionaire?
[102]
Did you know that in 2008
Sunday Times Rich List named Rowling the 144th richest person in Britain?
[10]