I remember the first time I ever heard of JK Rowling was a few months after the first Harry Potter book came out and although it hadn't been an instant smash with children, it had gained a cult following among adults, so the publishers had decided to go more for that market and reissued it with a more grown-up cover (the one with the photo of a steam train instead of the cartoon illustration). It was only afterwards that it started to become the phenomenon that has grown to irritate the hell out of us today.