As readers will remember, Waterstones.com released the 800-word Harry Potter prequel written by J. K. Rowling online after the work was sold at a charity auction for £25,000 ($48,855) early last week. Utalkmarketing.com is now reporting that over 70,000 people visited the website during the first 20 hours the prequel featuring James Potter and Sirius Black was online. The story also notes that nearly 4000 story cards have been sent in as part of the “What’s Your Story?” contest to date. Those who have not read the prequel can do so right here, or via this non-flash version here.
This card was part of the National Year of Reading event by Waterstone’s, which featured 13 cards containing stories from such authors as Neil Gaiman, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, and Irvine Welsh among others. The card written by J. K. Rowling was bought by a Toyko-based business owner who wishes to use this “piece of literary history” to continue charitable fund-raising. The complete collection of 13 cards will be published along with the winners of the Waterstone’s “What’s Your Story?” competition in a special book on August 7th. Proceeds from this book will benefit the English Pen and Dyslexia Action charities in the UK. This book is currently available for pre-order via the this link.
Wow! It would be really interesting to know how many people read the other authors’ card in the first 20 hours… just to show how much more popular Jo is xD
Seriously though, I have looked at a couple of other cards and although I thought they were good, they do not even compare with Jo’s story.
Hmm. I wish I could read this but I simply cant. I love the Harry Potter Series and I love everything about the Magical World. I know that this would be a very good prequel and i would greatly appreciate someone who could type out this handwritten prequel and post it again but I know that it would be very hard to because of all the copywritting stuff but….. Well I’ll go now
I loved the prequel, james was so funny, except neil gaiman´s story which was really funny, the other were boring, and if you think jo writing is bad ( i found it quite normal except a few words) you should check some of the others!
Just adding a bit of advice for those seeking a typed copy… a lot of the typed copies have typos, so it might be a good idea to have a window with the original handwritten card at the ready, for comparison. For example, if you find a typed version that says “timeless”, that word should really be “tuneless”, and if you see the phrase ”...did as they were told, finally pulling free from the…” that comma should be a full-stop, with “Finally” being the first word of a new sentence.
12 of those 70,000 was me re-reading :) But Gaiman’s was certainly the most enjoyable out of the rest (excellent ending) and I have to say most of the others were rather peculiar or flat. There was one card that was done as a comic strip but done as teaser to a full length graphic novel. Jo’s was by far the best!
"There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even [i]look[/i] something alike...
Amazing. Telling, too. The desire for more HP canon is as strong as it ever was.