Posted by Adam Quinan on February 18, 2006 at 18:57:05 from 72.136.51.111 user Adam.
In Reply to: Timeline etc etc posted by Mike Dennis on February 18, 2006 at 10:36:22:
Mike dennis wrote: Also I assume he did not plan the whole series in advance (we are told that JK Rowling had the whole Potter series planned out before she even approached a publisher - did she at any point consider that the whole thing may have been a total failure?)
I think AR did wite S&A as a one-off and although it didn't do very well at first, it was selling enough for him to write a sequel or two. But strangely, given our modern opinions of it, I believe that it was Peter Duck that really kick started the sales and made the series popular.
As for authors planning series, we don't really know in how much detail JK Rowling had pre-planned the Harry Potter series. Presumably she had an outline of the full arc of the series but not necessarily many of the details that she brings to her creation. She must have had the eventual conclusion in order to write the first book. Like a detective story writer, she had to consider what essential information she needed to impart to the readers at each stage. Given this assumption, then a failure of the first Harry Potter would have meant wasting some planning effort but not the writing time. However, not pre-planning would have meant that the series would be more likely to fall apart and be a failure.