Don’t Hold Breath for New Book by J.K Rowling

Headlines today that J.K. Rowling has finished her first work since the completion of her Harry Potter saga are overstating the point. The Tales of Beedle the Bard are mentioned in the final Harry Potter book and actually play an important role. But don’t get too excited: Rowling has only created seven copies. Rowling has said that working on the book had been therapeutic for her According to The Times Online:

“The Tales of Beedle the Bard is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years,” she said.

Handwritten and illustrated by Rowling herself, “the seven copies have been bound in brown morocco leather and mounted with silver and semi-precious stones,” The Times reported.

A single copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard will be available for purchase: but don’t get your hopes up:

The volume will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on December 13 with a starting price of £30,000. Proceeds will go to The Children’s Voice, a charity that helps vulnerable children across Europe.

The other six copies, Rowling says, will be given away as gifts.

Meanwhile, GalleyCat reports that Rowling is nixing companion Harry Potter-related books and Web sites wherever her powers will allow. “Why?” GalleyCat asks a little facetiously, I thought. “Because Rowling believes she can squeeze at least one more book out of the franchise, a ‘definitive’ encyclopedia with ‘new material’ that wasn’t in the books, which no doubt means more of her personal interpretations of the storyline like last month’s revelation that she knew Dumbledore was gay, even if you didn’t.”

Except that, since the entire Harry Potter world is Rowling’s “interpretation,” she gets to play that card. And we’ll stand in line to listen.