12 Publishers Rejected Harry Potter. An 8-Year-Old Girl Changed Their Mind.

In the mid-1990s, J.K. Rowling was a single mother living on welfare in Edinburgh, Scotland. She wrote in cafes while her baby daughter Jessica slept beside her in a pram. The manuscript she finished was about a boy wizard named Harry Potter.

Her literary agent submitted it to publishers. Twelve said no.

The Rejections

The reasons were consistent: too long for a children's book, too complex, not suitable for the target audience. One publisher reportedly returned the manuscript without even reading it. The consensus was clear: this book would not sell.

The 8-Year-Old

Nigel Newton, chairman of Bloomsbury Publishing, received the manuscript as the thirteenth submission. He didn't read it himself. He took it home and handed the first chapter to his eight-year-old daughter, Alice.

Alice read the first chapter, came downstairs, and demanded the next one. She nagged her father for months to find out what happened next.

Newton decided to publish it. He paid Rowling an advance of 2,500 pounds, roughly $3,200 at the time. His colleague Barry Cunningham told Rowling directly: "You'll never make any money out of children's books, Jo."

Bloomsbury also advised her to use her initials rather than "Joanne" because boys wouldn't read a book by a woman.

$25 Billion

Harry Potter went on to sell over 500 million copies worldwide. The film franchise grossed $7.7 billion at the box office. The theme parks generate over $1 billion per year. The total franchise value has crossed $25 billion.

All because an eight-year-old girl wouldn't go to sleep without knowing what happened next.