Can Magic Strike Again?
There’s no doubt that books that trend close to Harry Potter are doing well these days.
A few weeks ago, I posted about The Marvelous Effect, which has been referred to as “the black Harry Potter.”
And now, previously unknown Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams hope to generate that same kind of magic with their book, Tunnels. What is so amazing about Tunnels is that, like The Marvelous Effect, it was initially self-published.
Tunnels has something more important in common with Harry Potter, though: the eye of Chicken House publisher Barry Cunningham. Cunningham heard about the authors and signed them up for a series of fantasy tales (see guys, I didn’t say sci-fi, I’m learning) about fourteen year-old Will Burrows. The two have already received six figure advances.
Cunningham was the agent who signed J.K. Rowling for her Harry Potter series. Rowling has now sold more than 325 million copies of the series worldwide and became a billionaire - and that’s before the last book of the series has been released.
The question is, really, can Cunningham do it again?
Harry Potter, Barry Cunningham, J.K. Rowling, Chicken House, Tunnels, Brian Williams, Roderick Gordon
June 12th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
That’s a good question…. I guess time will tell.
While I am not normally a fan of Fantasy or Sci-Fi I do love Harry Potter. JK earned every penny of the money!
June 12th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
My good friend Kristin once said that JK Rowling is the woman that made reading cool again for kids - and for that, she definitely deserves the money!