JKR in Today's WSJ

[Caius Marcius]

The Wall Street Journal

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2002


Rowling Says  She's Polishing  Fifth `Potter'

   DON'T WORRY -- the next Harry Potter is just around the corner.  

   Author J.K. Rowling said in an interview that she has completed 
the bones of her long-awaited fifth book, "Harry Potter and the Order 
of the Phoenix," and is in the process of tweaking and polishing. She 
said she is satisfied with the work she has produced and has written 
a beginning, middle and ending.

   Ms. Rowling attributed the delay on this latest book to exhaustion 
from her last book, the distractions of fame, the length of the 
manuscript and changes in her personal life. The best-selling author, 
who remarried last December and has a nine-year-old daughter, added 
that she is four months pregnant.  

   Ms. Rowling declined to set a date when she will submit the 
manuscript to her publishers, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC in Britain 
and Scholastic Inc. in the U.S., but she didn't contradict a 
suggestion that the work could be submitted within three to six 
months. "When will I hand it in? I don't want to say, but it won't be 
very long," she said. Once the manuscript is submitted and thoroughly 
edited, Ms. Rowling's publishers could issue a finished book in as 
little as 2 1/2 months.  

   One reason delivery hasn't been faster: The manuscript is very 
long -- as long as the 734-page volume that preceded it. "Book five 
is frankly huge," said Ms. Rowling, 37 years old. "I said when I 
published `Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' that I needed to take 
a bit of time out. When I got halfway through, I found a mammoth 
hole, and I had to go back to the beginning and rewrite. And because 
we had set July 8th [2000] as the publication date, I needed to get 
it done. But it half killed me."  

   The timetable for the next Harry Potter is of interest not only to 
millions of readers but also to a giant business infrastructure 
dependent on the franchise. Bloomsbury and Scholastic are publicly 
traded companies, and the fortunes -- and stock prices --  of each 
have been bouyed by Potter-related revenue. AOL Time Warner Inc.'s 
Warner Bros. film unit, which is releasing its second Harry Potter 
movie in November and has the rights to the other two books and 
options on future titles, also has a stake in the series' 
continuation.  

   Ms. Rowling's four published titles have sold an estimated 175 
million copies world-wide in hard and soft cover, and the books have 
been published in at least 43 languages.  

   Partly because the first four Potter books were published every 
summer starting in 1997, there has been speculation that the fifth 
book is late. But Ms. Rowling said she never set a publication date 
for the latest book. She also dismissed speculation that she has 
suffered from writer's block, describing that as so much fantasy.  

   "I needed to step off the one-book-a-year treadmill," she said. "I 
knew people would say that she's lost it. But that's the price you 
pay for doing what you need to do -- do good work and maintain 
quality. I was so tired, not of Harry but of everything that goes 
with publishing a Harry Potter book. I felt that if I didn't take 
some time and step back and write in a more leisurely way, I might 
not be able to produce book five. I felt like a hamster running in a 
wheel."  

   Ms. Rowling added that she has written some other, non-Harry 
fiction, but she declined to be more specific. "Writing is a 
compulsion," she said. "I don't get blocked, and that's the truth of 
the matter. I might have plot difficulties, but I work them 
through."  

   The author, who has kept a low profile lately, said she decided to 
give an interview for several reasons. Earlier this week, she, 
Scholastic and Warner Bros. received a summary judgment that she 
hadn't copied any material from -- or infringed on any trademarks of -
- children's author Nancy Stouffer. The court imposed $50,000 in 
sanctions on Ms. Stouffer, as well as a portion of the attorneys' 
fees and costs Ms. Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Bros. incurred.  

   Ms. Stouffer had alleged the Muggles characters in the Harry 
Potter series infringed on characters she had created in her 
book, "The Legend of Rah and the Muggles." Ms. Stouffer used the word 
Muggles to refer to human beings who survived a nuclear war. In 
the "Harry Potter" series, Muggles are nonwizard types, or ordinary 
humans.  

   "People who aren't involved in a court case only see the tip of 
the iceberg," said Ms. Rowling. "It's a very draining process. Every 
time I typed the word Muggles I got up and walked away. I knew I was 
telling the complete truth, but as more and more things came up, I 
kept thinking some of this would stick." Ms. Rowling added that the 
court case was a factor in slowing down her work on the fifth 
book. "It didn't help," she said.  

   Another factor has been the amount of mail she receives, an 
estimated 1,000 pieces every week from readers in the United Kingdom 
alone.  

   She once devoted one day a month to answering her correspondence, 
but now it requires one day a week. She said she feels compelled to 
answer some letters herself because they have been sent by sick 
children or other needy readers who require an answer. "You have a 
moral obligation to do certain things," she said.  

   Some have speculated that Ms. Rowling's publishers are 
disappointed not to have a new Harry Potter title to tie into the 
second movie, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."  

   But Judy Corman, a Scholastic spokeswoman, disputed that. "We have 
the book that the movie is based on," Ms. Corman said. The company is 
publishing a mass-market version of it priced at $6.99, with a new 
cover aimed at older kids and adults.  

   In addition, Scholastic is readying yet another Harry Potter 
onslaught for the coming holiday season. The company will issue a 
deluxe, leatherbound edition of "Chamber" priced at $75, a boxed set 
of the four previously published hardcovers for $85, and a boxed set 
of the four volumes in paperback priced at $31. "We're covered," she 
said.  

   Ms. Rowling said that she is satisfied with her current publishers 
in the U.S. and the U.K. and doesn't contemplate any changes. She 
added that she still intends to complete a seven-book cycle.  

   Still, Ms. Rowling said the demand for the next book is so great, 
she sometimes feels guilty, feelings exacerbated when young children 
come up to her in the street and ask when the next book will be 
ready.  

   "Mostly I cope by ignoring the pressure," she said. "You'd go 
slightly strange if you focused on the size of this. I need to live 
in a certain amount of denial. I need to think this is my private 
world, and all that matters at the end of the day is I'm happy with 
what I've written. If I sat down and thought that there are 17 
million kids anxiously scanning Amazon, I'd freeze. I couldn't do it."