Trials and tribulations of the creator of Harry Potter – J.K.Rowling

Joanne Kathleen Rowling, more popularly known as J.K Rowling was born in 1965 in Yate, United Kingdom. She is the author of the best-selling book franchise of all time – The Harry Potter series.

Many sources indicate that J.K. Rowling is a Billionaire (even though she has personally denied this a few times). More than 500 Million Harry Potter book copies have been sold worldwide, with more than 180 Million copies in the US alone. It is no exaggeration to say that she defined an entire generation with her work.

The books were then transformed into movies produced by the Warner Brothers, which broke all box office records, and then into audio books, video games, theme parks and merchandise. The total value of the Harry Potter franchise is estimated to be $25 Billion.

She is currently writing a crime fiction series ‘Cormoran Strike’, and serves as the President of Lumos, an international children’s charity that she founded in 2005, amongst many other things.

The Trials and Tribulations of J.K.Rowling

But J.K.Rowling most definitely didn't have a fairy tale beginning. She had to go through countless trials and tribulations in her early life and career and deal with multiple rejections to get Harry Potter published.

So let's rewind the sands of time to before Rowling became the global superstar, to a time before she released Harry Potter.

J.K.Rowling’s parents were Peter Rowling, an Aircrafts Engineer at the Rolls Royce factory in Bristol, and Anne Volant Rowling, a Science Technician in the Chemistry department at Wyedean Comprehensive.

Her parents wanted their firstborn to be a boy and were disappointed that Joanne (J.K.Rowling's first name) was born a girl. Even though she was a girl, they dressed her up and raised her like a boy. As she grew older she learned of her parents' disappointment. They said 'no' when she questioned whether they wished her younger sister Dianne was born a boy. They even raised Dianne like a girl. This made J.K.Rowling sad as a young girl, and she often cried thinking about this. This made her yearn for her parent's acceptance from a young age.

She was severely bullied at her secondary school, Wyedean School and College. Rowling loved her mother very much, and her foundation was deeply shaken when her mother got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Jo was only 15! This complicated her life as she had to deal with her mother's illness and a strained relationship with her father. Rowling recollects those difficult times saying, ‘Home was a difficult place to be’.

Rowling took A-Levels in English, French and German and got good grades at her exams. She was also the head girl at her school. She applied to Oxford University for her tertiary education but was rejected. Most people believe this was because she attended a state school instead of a private school. She attended the University of Exeter instead, where she earned a BA in French with her final year in Paris.

After university, Rowling moved back to England and took a course to become a bilingual secretary. After bouncing around her few jobs, she was hired by Amnesty International to cover the human rights issues of French-speaking Africans.

In 1990 during a train journey from Manchester to London, the story and characters of Harry Potter first came to her mind. She wrote the ideas down 4 hours later when she managed to get hold of a pen and paper. J.K Rowling had always wanted to be a writer and had written her first story, ‘Rabbit’, when she was just 6 years of age.

She began developing her characters and the story more over the next couple of months. But she was met with yet another tragedy when her mother succumbed to multiple sclerosis in December, 1990. One of Rowling's biggest regrets in life was that she didn't get enough time to spend with her mother, and her mother never knew nothing about Harry Potter and the superstardom her daughter was about to get in the years to come.

Soon her relationship with her then-boyfriend ended, and she was let go of an office job in Manchester. She moved to Portugal towards the end of 1991 after seeing an advertisement in the Guardian.

In Portugal, she formed a relationship with a television journalist named Jorge Arantes whom she married the following year. By mid-1992, she had a miscarriage. Their relationship was troubled by several incidents of reported domestic abuse. Rowling had finished writing the 1st 3 chapters of Harry Potter, the Philosopher's Stone and had drafted the 1st book amidst all of the chaos.

By November, 1993 Arantes threw her out of the house. She returned with the Police and won custody of Jessica, her 1st born child. Rowling moved to Scotland to spend time with her newly married sister.

Joanne had a difficult relationship with her father ever since her childhood. He married his secretary and moved in with her within just 2 years after their mother's death. Joanne said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she had tried very hard in her younger days to please her father until one day, she decided she didn't want to do that anymore.

Not wanting to trouble her sister, Rowling sought government assistance, got £ 69 per week of welfare, and moved to a flat which turned out to be rat infested. She was as poor as it was possible without being homeless. Even she considered herself to be a failure 7 years after graduating from university. To make matters worse, she had to provide for her child Jessica. But Rowling describes that it was her love for her daughter that kept her going and she poured her heart into writing. Rowling's best friend Sean Harris lent her £ 600, which allowed her to move to a better apartment in Leith, where she finished the 1st book of the Harry Potter Series' The Philosopher's stone. The character Ron Weasley in Harry Potter was based on Sean.

In 1994, Rowling hit a new low as she suffered from severe depression and was having suicidal thoughts. She had to seek out medical help. She filed for divorce and officially separated from Arantes, who was trying to visit them in Scotland in 1995.

Her manuscript of Harry Potter was submitted to 12 publishers, all of whom rejected it. There was a small, independent publishing company named Bloomsbury at that time. The head of Bloomsbury Nigel Newton’s 8-year old daughter, enjoyed the book very much and wanted to keep reading it. He instructed Barry Cunningham who ran the Children’s section to buy the publishing rights. The initial print run of the Philosopher’s stone was on the 26th of June 1997 and printed 500 copies. Before the chamber of secrets was published, Rowling received £ 2,800 in royalties.

"You'll never make any money out of Children's books Jo" Rowling recollects Cunningham telling her. But boy, did she prove him and every other person who doubted her wrong as the popularity of the franchise grew more and more until it became the biggest phenomenon of that generation and became $25 Billion valuable, making J.K.Rowling a Billionaire in the process. Talk about a turn-around story!

J.K Rowling's story is much like that of Harry's. She overcame adversity after adversity to become a winner.

Anything's possible if you have enough nerve - Ginny Weasly (Harry Potter created by J.K.Rowling)