ap_Origins+and+publishing+history


 * //In 1990, J. K. Rowling was on a crowded train from //****//Manchester//** **// to //****//London//** **// when the idea for Harry suddenly "fell into her head". Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website saying:[40 ] //**


 * //"I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became more and more real to me." //**


 * //Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1995 and the //****//manuscript//** **// was sent off to several prospective //****//agents//** **//.[41 ] The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, offered to represent her and sent the manuscript to Bloomsbury. After eight other publishers had rejected Philosopher's Stone, Bloomsbury offered Rowling a £2,500 advance for its publication.[42 ][43 ] Despite Rowling's statement that she did not have any particular //****//age group//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);"> in mind when beginning to write the Harry Potter books, the publishers initially targeted children aged nine to eleven.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[44 ] On the eve of publishing, Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//gender-neutral//** <span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);"> <span class="wiki_link_ext">**//pen name//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);"> in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother's name as her second name because she has no //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//middle name//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);">.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[45 ]<span class="wiki_link_ext">[43 ] //**
 * //<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);">Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published by //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//Bloomsbury//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);">, the publisher of all Harry Potter books in the United Kingdom, on 30 June 1997.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[46 ] It was released in the United States on //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//1 September//** <span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);"> <span class="wiki_link_ext">**//1998//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);"> by //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//Scholastic//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);">—the American publisher of the books—as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,<span class="wiki_link_ext">[47 ] after Rowling had received //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//US$//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);">105,000 for the American rights—an unprecedented amount for a children's book by a then-unknown author.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[48 ] Fearing that American readers would not associate the word "philosopher" with a magical theme (as a //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//Philosopher's Stone//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);"> is alchemy-related), Scholastic insisted that the book be given the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the American market. //**
 * //<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);">The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//2 June//** <span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);"> <span class="wiki_link_ext">**//1999//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);">.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[49 ]<span class="wiki_link_ext">[50 ] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[49 ]<span class="wiki_link_ext">[50 ] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//Bloomsbury//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);"> and //**<span class="wiki_link_ext">**//Scholastic//** **//<span style="background-color: rgb(0, 128, 128);">.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[51 ] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[52 ] It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[53 ] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005, and it sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[54 ]<span class="wiki_link_ext">[55 ] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[56 ] The book sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, breaking down to 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.<span class="wiki_link_ext">[57 //**