Why I am Jealous of Robert Galbraith

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For those of you who aren't aware, Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for JK Rowling. I could easily do a blog on why I am jealous of JK Rowling but it would be rather short having only the sentence, 'because she is absolutely loaded.' The Harry Potter author recently released rejection letters that she received whilst pitching her book 'the Cuckoo's Calling' under the Galbraith name, eventually the book was picked up and published by Sphere Books without Rowling's identity being revealed, in-fact the book had sold around 1500 copies before her true identity broke.

'feedback is a gift'

So why am I jealous of Galbraith? For 2 reasons, the first being that some of the letters Rowling received back actually contained feedback, albeit not the most flattering things for anyone to hear, especially for a highly successful author, including that she may want to look into taking a writing course and that she needed to learn how to pitch to a publisher. I know what you are thinking why would I be jealous of criticism, because when all is said and done it is feedback and feedback is a gift. My email responses from agents and publishers usually contain the line, 'although we enjoyed what you have sent, we do not feel it would be right for us.' What does that mean? How does it help? Is it good, bad, good concept poorly written? Well written poor concept? Should I give up now or keep going? Where do I go from here? I just like all writers/authors want some kind of recognition that we are on the right track and that we are doing a good job and without feedback from 'industry professionals' it is hard to know what to do next. If what I have done is bad, then tell me it is, I won't like it but I can work with it.

 

'although we enjoyed what you have sent, we do not feel it would be right for us.'

The second reason I am jealous of Mr Galbraith is that he benefits from a condition that I call 'Common People.' If you remember the Pulp song from the 90's you will easily get my reference but for those who don't, here it is,

Rent a flat above a shop,
Cut your hair and get a job.
Smoke some fags and play some pool,
Pretend you never went to school.
But still you'll never get it right,
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night,
Watching roaches climb the wall,
If you called your Dad he could stop it all

If Robert Galbraith desperately wanted to get the Cuckoo's Calling published and nobody was willing to help, he could have just dropped the pre-tense and said I am JK Rowling and I want to publish this book. I don't have that power, like a lot of you out there who self-publish because you can't get a publisher to take you seriously, if the final letter says no then we either give up or do it ourselves, we have no get out of jail free card. I take nothing away from Rowling, she took her shot and she earned her success and I wish her all the best for everything she does, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series like the rest of the world, but she has now passed that point of not being taken seriously, even if Galbraith had failed Rowling would not have.

 

'If you called your Dad he could stop it all'

What do you think? As usual please leave comments below.

Written by Martin Wallace