JK Rowling writes under two different pseudonyms and there's a sad reason neither of them are her real name

JK Rowling couldn’t even use her real name when she wrote her hit books, so she had to get creative with coming up with an alias.

Now, if you don’t already know, her name isn’t JK Rowling.

Well, the Rowling is correct as it’s her last name but her first name is Joanne.

The K was taken from her grandmother’s name as the author doesn’t have a middle name of her own.

With such a recognisable pen name, you’d think that she’d want to use it for every book she ever created.

But the author actually has a sad reason why she can’t use her own name, or even JK Rowling all the time.

So, why is this?

JK Rowling couldn't use her name. (Samir Hussein/WireImage)

When drafting up the infamous Harry Potter books, Rowling was promptly told not to use her real name.

The reason for this was because her publisher told her that they didn’t think boys would be interested in a fantasy book about a boy wizard if it was written by a woman.

This meant that she had to get creative to concoct a gender-neutral name for the sake of her intended audience.

This one act changed her entire persona forever and she’ll always be known as JK Rowling instead of Joanne Rowling.

However, she shockingly has another pseudonym called Robert Galbraith.

The author chose this name for her crime novel series of six books, The Cormoran Strike, and shared exactly why she decided to use a different name and persona.

She was even a man. (Getty Images/ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

She explained that she chose Robert because it’s one of her favourite names, and Robert F Kennedy is her ‘hero’.

On the Robert Galbraith website, she began by saying that she wanted to release her books with unbiased and honest feedback from her audience.

She also said the pressure of writing under JK Rowling is intense.

She wrote: “I chose Robert because it’s one of my favourite men’s names, because Robert F Kennedy is my hero and because, mercifully, I hadn’t used it for any of the characters in the Potter series or The Casual Vacancy.

“Galbraith came about for a slightly odd reason. When I was a child, I really wanted to be called ‘Ella Galbraith’, and I’ve no idea why.

"I don’t even know how I knew that the surname existed, because I can’t remember ever meeting anyone with it. Be that as it may, the name had a fascination for me. I actually considered calling myself L A Galbraith for the Strike series, but for fairly obvious reasons decided that initials were a bad idea.

“Odder still, there was a well-known economist called J K Galbraith, something I only remembered by the time it was far too late. I was completely paranoid that people might take this as a clue and land at my real identity, but thankfully nobody was looking that deeply at the author’s name.”

But why a man?

According to the writer, she wanted to take her ‘writing persona as far away as possible from me’ and Robert did just that for her.

She also explained that when she revealed her true identity to her editor after he read The Cuckoo’s Calling book, he was shocked.

He remarked to her that he didn’t think a woman had written the book and she felt quite proud that her alias had worked.

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