The creator of Harry Potter, the British writer J.K. Rowling has just announced the publication of her new book, a children's novel called The Ickabog. The big surprise is that it has decided to offer it completely free to its readers, publishing the story by chapters that will appear online over the next 7 weeks.
For this, Rowling has prepared a web page called theickabog.com, where we can find a welcome note in which she clarifies to the readers that the story will come out in parts, "sometimes a chapter (another two, or even three)" . At the time of writing these lines the writer has already "released" 8 chapters. All of them of short duration and agile reading (although for now they are in English).
The Ickabog, an old-fashioned fairy tale
As for the story, it seems to be quite close to the classic traditional fairy tale, set in a distant kingdom, with its knights, its kings and more. But yes, although he confesses that the idea for The Ickabog began to develop it during his successful series of Harry Potter novels, here we will not find spells or incantations of any kind. “The Ickabog is not Harry Potter and does not include magic. This is a completely different story, ”clarifies Rowling.
According to the British literary and philanthropist, the idea came “a long time ago. I used to read it to my two young children chapter by chapter every night while I was working on the novel. " However, when it came time to publish The Ickabog, he instead published "a book for adults, which is why The Ickabog ended up forgotten in the attic of the house." During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rowling went up to the attic and retrieved the novel, tweaked it here and there, and decided to publish it online for free.
In a post published a couple of days ago on her personal website, Rowling presents the book to us and mentions that “The Ickabog is a story about truth and the abuse of power”, although she clarifies, “to avoid a more than obvious question : The idea came to my head more than a decade ago, so it cannot be read as an answer to anything that is happening in the world right now. The topics covered are timeless and can be applied to any era and to any country ”.
Controversial artistic contest
Rowling has also opened a contest for children to submit their illustrations for the book. The writer clarifies that it is an official contest managed by Scholastic, so that the selected artists will be able to see their drawings in the printed edition of the book, which is expected to see the light of day later this year.
Although Rowling does not mention any financial compensation for the authors who contribute the illustrations, the official rules of the competition indicate that the 34 winners will receive “a signed copy of the book”. Scholastic will also donate $ 650 worth of books to the winners' chosen school, college or library. "I will be giving recommendations on what to draw as we move forward, but in any case the idea is that you let your imagination fly."
The truth is that the contest, as it sounds, does not look good at all, and it seems that the publisher or the author wants to save a good few pounds at the cost of fulfilling the dream and illusions of their younger readers (remember that the rules only allow children between 7 and 12 years old to participate).
In any case, and controversies aside, after its online publication, Scholastic will publish the book through traditional means in print, ebook and audiobook formats.
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