It was revealed Sunday that 'The Cuckoo's Calling' author Robert Galbraith was really her.







New orders are pouring in for the 3-month-old detective novel that J.K. Rowling published under a pseudonym.
Rowling confirmed a British newspaper report Sunday that she wrote The Cuckoo's Calling, which was published in April and credited to Robert Galbraith, said to be the pen name of a former military police investigator.

 Despite excellent reviews, it sold few copies — until now. It has soared to the top of Amazon's and Barnes & Noble's best-seller lists as publisher Little, Brown rushes to print 300,000 new copies, which it plans to ship to stores later this week.

For now, it's available as an e-book, but print copies are difficult to find.

 MORE: Stephen King cheers Rowling's try for 'anonymity'

At a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan Monday, bookseller Gillian Mendez said half of the store's phone calls were customers seeking The Cuckoo's Calling. "They ask, 'Any way you can get me a copy?' " she said, laughing. "It starts sounding really shady."

 At Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, Daniel Goldin sold his one and only copy shortly after his store opened Sunday. He took 25 calls from readers, including one woman "who told me she had called about 50 stores around the country looking for a copy."
Rowling used the same publisher, agent and editor who handled her first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy. It sold about 1 million copies last year despite mixed reviews.
In a statement about Cuckoo, she expressed delight at being able "to publish without hype or expectation" and "get feedback under a different name."


Goldin notes that reviews were better for The Cuckoo's Calling than A Casual Vacancy but asks, "Is that really a question of expectations" after Rowling's Harry Potter success? "How will folks reviewing (Cuckoo) now feel, compared to initial critics who thought they were helping out a nobody?"
Amazon's Sara Nelson says she has no reason to believe Rowling was involved in a publicity ruse. "I think she's a writer who wants to write without the hype and expectations … It's kind of cool."

 But John Mutter, editor of Shelf Awareness, a digital newsletter, says that "Rowling is a control freak" and that it's "easy to imagine that the 'leak' (to the British newspaper) was countenanced. Her statement had none of the anger of someone whose secret was compromised."

 He adds, "It'll be interesting to find out how much Little, Brown knew and when … If they knew early on that Galbraith was Rowling, I can imagine she swore them to secrecy. And what publisher wouldn't obey such a request from J.K. Rowling?"
Little, Brown declined interview requests Monday.