J.K. Rowling's next book revealed: "The Casual Vacancy"

J.K. Rowling arrives for the world premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1" in London on Nov. 11, 2010.

/ AP

(CBS/AP) LONDON - Details of J.K. Rowling's next book have been revealed, including its title, publication date and a synopsis.

The author's first novel for adults, "The Casual Vacancy," will be available worldwide on Sept. 27, it was announced Thursday. Her publisher, Little, Brown & Co. said the book is a "blackly comic" tale of rivalry and duplicity, set in a small English town.

The book will be Rowling's first post-"Harry Potter" effort. Her seven-volume saga about the adventures of a boy wizard became one of the most successful fictional series in history and led to eight extremely popular films.

The new book, aimed at a grown-up audience, will be set in a seemingly idyllic English town called Pagford which is described as far more menacing than its pretty facade would indicate.

It opens with the sudden death of a popular man whose unexpected demise shocks the town. The battle for his seat on the local council sets off "the biggest war the town has yet seen," with rich people fighting poor, parents battling their teenagers, and wives in conflict with their husbands.

The publisher said the 480-page novel will be sold as an e-book and audio download as well as in traditional hardback form.

Rowling's seven Harry Potter novels have sold 450 million copies and have been translated into 74 languages. Her final Potter offering, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," was published in 2007. She published a short Potter spin-off collection of stories, "The Tales Of Beedle The Bard," in 2008.

The author said earlier this year she wanted to reach an adult audience, but kept the book's name and publication date secret until Thursday.

[tmittelstaed]

Oh Gawd now we are going to have to go though a decade of Rowlings thrashing around and putting out awful novels because she thinks's she's an "artieeest" The plot synopsis makes me want to throw up and even the title is awful, you can get better soap opera stories out of a Harlequan.

Rowlings may have been a genius with the Potter series but she has no understanding of what she is. She could have spent the rest of her life milking that Potter teat, just like George Lucas learned to do with the Star Wars franchise.

The Potter movie series could have been followed by a TV show, then a comic book and lots of other craaaaapppp that would have sold like the dickens. Then when the fad was finally beaten to shreads Harry Potter could come back as headmaster of Hogwarts and it could have kicked off another 10 book series.

What people don't understand is that the reason Potter was so successful is that it was aimed at children, just like Lord of the Rings was originally aimed at children, the big difference being that LoTR is slower and develops the background far more than Potter does. Star Wars was also aimed at children, too. When children find something they like they want to see it or read it over and over and over and over again. They don't go to the library and check the book out, read it, and return it. They have to buy the book because they are going to handle it so much it's going to become shredded.

Oh well, Rowling is young, and she will learn, eventually. To really speak to an adult audience she needs to live as most adults do for the next 40 years and really learn something worth telling people. But she has too much money to do that, she's forever isolated from the rest of the world by it.

So maybe in another 20 years we might get another decent fantasy series out of her. But until then - c r r a a p p o o l l a a!!!!

[forgeandgred]

you must be a *****.....J.K. rowling made one of the BEST series in the world. I can tell that you are a potter hater and twilite lover

[longtree-2009]

she must be worth a 100 millon, perhaps a billion. didn't she buy a castle for herself in england? the woman is extremely wealthy and that's putting it mildly.