JK Rowling News (I mean as long as I'm being all literaryish and ish)

Just out today on the company email.

Press Release: Deals Done
Little, Brown To Publish J.K. Rowling's First Novel For Adults

Posted at 2:36PM Thursday 23 Feb 2012

Little, Brown Book Group and Little, Brown and Company are delighted to announce that they will publish J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults worldwide in the English language, both in print and ebooks.

David Shelley, Publisher, Little, Brown Book Group, will be J.K. Rowling's editor and will be responsible for publication in the United Kingdom with Michael Pietsch, Executive Vice President of Little, Brown and Company, responsible for publication in the United States. The book will be published by Hachette in Australia and in New Zealand and by Hachette's companies and normal appointed agents for the English language in other markets.

The title, the date for the worldwide publication and further details about the novel will be announced later in the year.

J.K. Rowling said:

"Although I've enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world. The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry's success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life."

David Shelley said:

"Tim Hely Hutchinson, Ursula Mackenzie and I, and the whole team at Little, Brown in the UK, along with our colleagues David Young and Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown in the USA, are thrilled, honoured and proud to be publishing J.K. Rowling's new book.

"For me, quite simply, it is a personal and professional dream come true to be working with J.K. Rowling. She is one of the best storytellers in the world, and I am looking forward enormously to helping bring her new novel for adults to her fans and admirers, and to introducing her writing to new readers the world over."

J.K. Rowling was represented by Neil Blair of The Blair Partnership.
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Note/disclosure thingy: I work for the US publisher of the Harry Potter series, which is why I have this before it's even a hot topic on Yahoo (woohoo!). We're still her publisher for children's books, she's just ready to try something different. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing what she comes up with - I'd honestly never picked up a Harry before I came to work here, despite the fact that Books 1-4 had all been out for some time & it was already an acknowledged phenomenon. I mentioned this to a co-worker, who promptly informed me that that just wouldn't do and loaned me Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. I was instantly hooked, of course!

2nd note, a little later - Wow. Yahoo is kind of slow on the uptake, aren't they? At least relatively. Story on the company intranet says "The announcement caused immediate excitement in the social media world — within mere minutes, 'JK Rowling' was trending on Twitter, as thousands of fans showed their support.". As of somewhere around 11:30, Yahoo still wasn't on it. Oh, and in case you were wondering (I know I was), the story also says, "While everyone's clamoring for details, there's little to share: the title, the date for the worldwide publication and further details about the novel will be announced later in the year."

3rd note, later still: Aha! 12:22 pm and Yahoo FINALLY has this as a top story. Took them long enough!