Prequels. Rockin' addition to a great saga or money-grubbing capatlistic ass-tastic swine ripoff?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

‘Harry Potter’ prequel sold at U.K. auction
An 800-word mini-prequel by Rowling was sold Tuesday for $49,323

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24863211/

An 800-word prequel to the Harry Potter series, handwritten by author J.K. Rowling, sold for 25,000 pounds (US$49,323, euro31,278) at an auction Tuesday.

An absent bidder paid more than 30 pounds (US$59, euro37.50) per word for Rowling's short story at a charity auction at the flagship of Waterstone's book store chain in London. Proceeds will benefit the writers' association English PEN and a dyslexia charity.

A short mystery story by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard raised 4,000 pounds (US$7,892, euro5,005).

Waterstone's Booksellers Ltd. says the cream-colored A5 papers — each slightly bigger than a postcard — were distributed to 13 authors and illustrators, including the boy wizard's creator J.K. Rowling, Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, novelist Margaret Atwood and playwright Tom Stoppard.

[Lyric]

1. It was a charity auction

Even if it's crap, it was for a good cause, so the ones sold at that auction get a free pass.

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Yes, and it was hand-written.

It's not like she's trying to make money from it.

[Chan790]

3. Rowling has a history of this and they're not really prequels.

she sold a different one on Amazon for charity last month. Calling them prequels is disingenuous; they're stand-alone stories set in the same universe which round-out background and expand the mythology, yet are set-off from the main plot-track of the series. One needs no knowledge of the Harry Potter series to enjoy them.

I respect and applaud her contributions to charity and think this is a great way to capitalize on her success to maximize the size of the donations without degrading the series and expanding rather than corrupting the "mythology" of her written "universe".

All that...and I still think she's a piss-poor writer from a technical standpoint. It's to support a great cause though so de gustibus non est disputandum (one shouldn't debate matters of taste.)