Keep at it

Imagine she had given up after all the rejections, who is she you may wonder.

She's an author of many books. Among them are the casual vacancy, troubled blood, the Christmas pig but the most popular is Harry Potter! It's none other than Joanne Kathleen Rowling.

Source: glamour.com

J.K Rowling as she's popularly known is a British author. Her target audience are mostly kids. Interestingly she hasn't always got it together, let's find out why that is.

Her parents were middle class naval officers that resigned to raise their 2 daughters, Joanne and Anne. Joanne was 2 years older.

At just 11, Joanne had written a short story "the seven cursed diamonds". According to her teachers she had a great imagination. 

J.K and Anne had a great relationship with their mother who took a job in the school they attended, all three would walk to and from school sharing stories about their day. The support of her mother and sister instilled confidence and enthusiasm for her storytelling. 

Source: theguardian.com

She applied to Oxford University but was rejected, she later studied French at the University of Exeter. 

She took long train trips to visit her boyfriend as they had planned to move in together. On one of those trips, her train was delayed for 4hours and the characters of Harry Potter were born. Her family had lived close to a family called Potter, she had always loved the name.

source: bloomsberry.com

After her University, she moved to Manchester in 1990 with her boyfriend and was already writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone. When her mother died it affected J.K a lot, adding to her loss was an end to her relationship and job.

She moved to Porto to teach night classes in English. 5 months later she met Jorge Arantes, they got married in 1992 and had a daughter, Jessica in 1993, by this time she had written the first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone. 

source: wionews.com

Her marriage ended as her husband engaged in domestic abuse and J.K and Jessica moved in with Anne. Her relationship with her dad worsened as he married his secretary 2 years after her mother's death. 

It's been 7 years since she graduated from the university, she saw herself as a failure being a single parent with no job and house caused her great difficulty.

She focused on writing. Her old school friend loaned her $900 which she used to rent a flat after leaving government assistance. She finished her book The Philosopher's Stone here.

Source: bloomsbury.com

At some point, she contemplated suicide and eventually went to therapy, things improved and she began a teacher training course in 1995 after completing her first novel, which according to her saved her life. 

She submitted the manuscript of the novel to 12 publishers who all rejected it. Finally, Barry Cunningham bought it for $4000 after his 8 year old daughter read chapter 1 and wanted to continue reading it. " you'll never make any money out of children's books " was a statement Cunningham had made to J.K

source: bloomsbury.com

She finally bought an apartment after receiving about $105,000 for the rights of the book. She was named Forbes world's highest paid author in 2008, 2017 and 2019, named to the order of the British empire and appointed a member of the companions of honour for services to literature and philanthropy. 

The book has won many awards. In 2016, the total value of the Harry Potter franchise was estimated at $25 billion, making it one of the highest grossing media franchises of all time.

source: bloomsbury.com

The Harry Potter series includes Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone (1997), Harry Potter and the chamber of screts (1998), Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkahban (1999), Harry Potter and the goblet of fire (2000), Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix (2003), Harry Potter and the half blood prince (2005), and Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows (2007), together all seven sold over 500 million copies and has been translated into about 70 languages world wide. 

source: universe.byu.edu

She remarried in 2001 to Neil Murray and has 2 children with him.

J.K Rowling went from being a rejected, depressed, unemployed single mother to one of the best selling authors of all time. She had a vision, accepted all the setbacks and was persistent in her writing, she got back up so can you!

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise"  Victor Hugo.