JK Rowling's crime novel written under male pseudonym was REJECTED by publisher before sales soared when she was revealed as the author



JK Rowling published A Cuckoo's Calling under name Robert Galbraith



Experts spotted similarities between the novel and her previous work

Book shoots up 5,000 places to top of Amazon bestsellers list yesterday



A publisher has admitted she turned down JK Rowling's pseudonymous thriller The Cuckoo’s Calling after finding it 'perfectly decent but quiet'.

Kate Mills, fiction editor at Orion Publishing, said she couldn't see a USP for the crime novel, submitted to her by 'first-time author Robert Galbraith', in a 'tough' market.

Unluckily for her it turns out there was one, and now sales of the book, which had had a lukewarm reception originally, are soaring.

Orion fiction editor Kate Mills admitted via Twitter that she had rejected JK Rowling's pseudonymous thriller

JK Rowling managed to keep her identity a secret and publish a crime novel under a pseudonym

The Cuckoo's Calling received unprecedented praise from readers and other crime novelists

The book, which had sold a modest 1,500 copies and was languishing at 4,709 in Amazon's bestsellers list until yesterday, shot up 5,000 places to the top of the chart after it was revealed that its true author was Harry Potter writer JK Rowling.

Yesterday Ms Mills was lauded for her bravery after confessing her secret with a tweet that read: 'So, I can now say that I turned down JK Rowling.

'I did read and say no to Cuckoo's Calling. Anyone else going to confess?'

No-one immediately stepped forward to admit the same thing but she justified her decision saying: 'As an editor you've got to love what you publish. I didn't love it...'



Confessing that she wrote the book, published three months ago, Miss Rowling said: ‘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.’



According to the publisher’s website, The Cuckoo’s Calling was written by a former plain-clothes Royal Military Police investigator using the pen-name of Galbraith.

But literary sleuths would have noticed that the ‘novice’ writer shared an agent with Miss Rowling, 47.



And the novel was published by Sphere, part of publisher Little, Brown Book Group, which released Miss Rowling’s first book for adults, The Casual Vacancy, last year.



Then there were clues in the writing itself.



Readers noted on social networking sites how well the ‘male’ author had described women’s clothes.



The Cuckoo’s Calling was released in April.



It tells the story of Cormoran Strike, a war veteran turned private eye, who is investigating the death of a model.

It received rave reviews, with Val McDermid, author of The Wire In The Blood, saying it reminded her ‘why I fell in love with crime writing in the first place’.



Mark Billingham, another crime writer, said Strike was ‘one of the most unique and compelling detectives I’ve come across in years’.



But it seems writing under a nom de plume has its drawbacks, because the book was rejected by at least one publisher.

Kate Mills, fiction editor at Orion Books, tweeted: ‘So, I can now say that I turned down JK Rowling. Anyone else going to confess?’



The second Strike book, which is thought to be finished, comes out next year.



Miss Rowling told the Sunday Times: ‘Robert fully intends to keep writing the series, although he will probably continue to turn down personal appearances.’