"The Cuckoo's Calling" by JK Rowling

Back in April, a crime novel called The Cuckoo's Calling was released by a mysterious man named Robert Galbraith as his debut book. The book was critically acclaimed even though there was little information on who this "man" was and not much promotion. It turns out the author is actually JK Rowling, who transfigured herself under the pseudonym of Galbraith. Harry Potter would be proud.

Rowling stated, "I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name." She had sent the novel to a publisher anonymously, and they declined it before being accepted by another (Sphere Books/Little, Brown & Company). This is her second non-Harry Potter book after The Casual Vacancy.

After it was revealed Rowling was the author, sales of the book went up 16,683,500% on Amazon. Yes, that is a real number. It's also the top selling book on Amazon now, after being previously ranked as the 166,836th ranked book. Currently if you'd like to buy the book, it is going to take extra days to ship because of the massive sales increase.

I love what Rowling did. All this time there was this fantastic novel sitting on the shelves and few people knew about it. Maybe that will finally get more people to start reading books? Or better yet, maybe publishing companies will promote books by lesser known writers? Probably not, but one can hope. The Cuckoo's Calling may become a series, as Rowling is reportedly writing another book featuring the main character, Cormoran Strike.