This is a LimeTed edition:

No, I'd prefer her to give a large sum to charity, period. Sure, print up a large cardboard check and get photographed, that's cool. But this whole "I wrote it with my own hands" stuff that gets fans into a froth of ecstasy is just self-serving, IMHO. Why even tell us she's giving copies to friends? "Oh by the way, I totally gave my friends something WAY valuable as a gift. Yup, I did that."

I dont' think she's going back down into a blip, same way George Lucas is still wealthy, well known, and influential. With her kind of money she can start any company she wants, much as Lucas did, and keep her name rolling for generations. That is, if she's smart.

I don't put sequels/prequels/side stories/oh wait here's another Hogwarts series etc past Rowling, same way Lucas revived his franchise, especially in 20 years. She's young yet, and even when she goes, perhaps the fan fic will finally get its day on the shelves, if not sooner, a la Lucas' massive book empire, written by plenty of Tom Dick and Harry fanboys, really.

Heh, like I said, I haven't been a big fan since book 5. Even then, I only originally got into them because I worked at a children's library, and that was about 3 years after the first book came out, so I was late to the game. I won't deny the awesomeness of those first four books - they stand up against any children's literature ever written - but celebrity antics, blech.

But without the auction of the book the money would come from her own pocket. With the auction, someone gets to donate a large sum to a worthy charity, and in return gets a very limited edition of a book... whether it becomes available in print is moot, because there will only ever be 7 handwritten versions. That's not a big run, really.

If I were Bruce Wayne or some other philanthropic billionaire I'd buy it !!

She already does give very large sums to charity- she's quite well known for her philanthropy. She's also still pretty famous, so I don't think this is a bid for attention. Believe me, when she gets to be like Oprah I will be the first one in line to criticize, but for now I think she's done a nice thing and I'm not going to knock her for that.

And she's got nice boobs

If I were Bruce Wayne or some other philanthropic billionaire I'd hit it.

Fairy tale book handwritten, illustrated by J.K. Rowling sells for $4 million
...<snip>

Double You Tee Eff?!?!?!

Holy crap!!! (But hey, if you were going to donate that amount of cash, at least you got something valuable in return.... wouldn't it be a massive tax writeoff? And you could loan the book to a museum for a lot of money for the kids to file by it? And your own kids could sell it for a lot of money if they ever get addicted to crack and are broke?)

Amazon.com bought it Link

Any bets on how long it is until copies are made avaliable to the public?