SnitchSeeker.com - Publisher who rejected J.K. Rowling's Cormoran Strike mystery novel speaks out

One of the publishers who rejected J.K. Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling, then released under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, spoke out this week about why they turned down the novel. More on that can be read below.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">By popular request, 2 of <a href="https://twitter.com/RGalbrath">@RGalbrath</a>'s rejection letters! (For inspiration, not revenge, so I've removed signatures.) <a href="https://t.co/vVoc0x6r8W">pic.twitter.com/vVoc0x6r8W</a></p>— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/713298761288708096">March 25, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Severn House has responded after <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling">@jk_rowling</a> tweeted a rejection letter for her first Robert Galbraith novel: <a href="https://t.co/F7hx7tUhL8">https://t.co/F7hx7tUhL8</a></p>— The Bookseller (@thebookseller) <a href="https://twitter.com/thebookseller/status/714779903183302657">March 29, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Severn House, the UK publishing company that owns Creme de la Crime (which rejected the Galbraith title), basically admitted that had they known it was the Harry Potter author behind the novel, they would have immediately published it.

Quote:

Edwin Buckhalter, chairman of Severn House, told The Bookseller: “We have conducted investigations over the Easter weekend and the letter is correct – the submission was sent at the time that Creme de la Crime was being sold to Severn House and until Friday we had no idea of this." But he added: "We are very much a specialist publisher and we prefer names with a track record in hardback, or if in paperback, from an established publisher, so who is to say we wouldn’t have made the same decision if it was sent to us.”

Buckhalter did offer this piece of sound advice for budding authors:

Quote:

“Publishing history is littered with these sorts of stories and I think Harry Potter was rejected several times before being published. I would suggest writers try to find a good agent. Publishers tend to look through submissions from agents first.”

The other publisher that sent a rejection letter, Little Brown's Constable & Robinson, did not comment to the revelation.