As a writer and a mother, I have an immense amount of respect for J.K. Rowling, author of the world-renowned Harry Potter book series. Today, Rowling is one of the most well-known authors in the world, not to mention the highest earning and most popular writer of the last decade.
Before she became one of the most talked about authors of our time, giving life to “The Boy Who Lived (aka Harry Potter),” Rowling was an English teacher in Portugal. There she met her first husband, journalist Jorge Arantes, and she began working on the early draft of her manuscript. The couple had one child together, a little girl named Jessica in 1993, but their marriage ended in divorce. After the divorce, Rowling moved to Edinburgh, Scotland with Jessica, but the teaching requirements in Scotland required her to get another year of education.
Rowling struggled to support herself and her daughter during this time. Living off of welfare, she barely had enough to make ends meet, but that didn’t stop her from silently pursuing the fantasy she’d had for years while riding trains from Manchester to London earlier in her life. In coffee shops, she finished the novel she began in Portugal, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, while her daughter napped. Upon completing the novel, she shopped it to a number of publishers, all of whom rejected the manuscript.
In 1996, Bloomsbury agreed to publish the novel, and gave her a small advance. The editor of her book told her to get a day job, because he really didn’t think the book would do that well. Shortly after, the Scottish Arts Council awarded her a sizable grant that allowed her to continue pursuing her career as a writer, and in 1998 Scholastic won the rights to publish the series after bidding $105,000. After that, her career took off, and the rest is well-known history.
Rowling battled poverty, and won by following a dream. Today, Rowling is the 13th richest woman in Britain, and has even more money than the Queen. Her dedication to her dream saw the completion of all seven novels in the Harry Potter series, and options for eight films. At this time she has no intention of writing any other stories in that universe, but she hasn’t completely ruled out the possibility. Remarried, and mother of three, she’s still writing, but without the pressure that once compelled her to put every bit of her soul into the outcome of a phenomenal aspiration.
Rowling is an inspiration to writers, readers and women everywhere, having touched the lives of millions of people by sharing her vision and dream despite the odds she faced.
