INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

J. K. Rowling Calls Out False Quote Attributed To Her At Outdoor Retail Show

By Steph Bazzle
Published on: 03:27 PST, Jan 21, 2015

J. K. Rowling has been pretty active on Twitter lately, with her alter ego, Robert Galbraith, working on a new book. Thanks to all her online activity, she was available to catch a tweet bearing her image and a quote Rowling says didn’t come from her, before it was deleted. Rowling responded, denouncing the use of her image and calling it weird.

At the Outdoor Retailer show, keynote speaker Jeremy Gutsche reportedly used, in a slide show, an image of J.K. Rowling, and a quote.

“Obsess about your next customer, not only the ones you have.”

The quote got some attention — it was mentioned in tweets, and Outdoor Industry Association tweeted a photo of the slide. Rowling responded within minutes.

To their credit, OIA was listening, and when Rowling spoke up, they responded. First, they deleted the image from their twitter timeline, then they offered an apt apology to the Harry Potter author.

For her part, Rowling graciously accepted the apology and moved on, only pausing to note that using her name to give business advice was bemusing to her.

Gutsche, an author and CEO, whose website bills him as “one of the most sought-after keynote speakers on the planet” was next to respond to the controversy, after being mentioned in dozens of tweets that called the use of Rowling’s name and image rude and a lie. He quickly explained that the words were not meant to be a quote — just a lesson he took from J.K. Rowling’s story.

Rowling disputed that this was a likely message to take from watching her, and Gutsche continued to defend.

Meanwhile, J.K. Rowling’s fans spoke in defense, arguing that the quote sounded nothing like her.

Editor’s note: Jeremy Gutsche has reached out to the Inquisitr to offer greater clarification on the situation.

“I was giving a speech where I told 9 stories of facing adversity and change, including of 6 companies, a chef, a movie director and an author (JK Rowling). At the end of the examples, I gave my OWN conclusion, tailored to the audience, which was a quote of MY OWN in my book. “Obsess about your next customer, not only the ones you have.”

Note that I have never EVER attributed any quote about customers to JK Rowling, although someone from the conference took my own quote and may have attributed it to JK Rowling. That caused JK Rowling to think I quoted her, but in my upcoming book, it is my own quote, 100%.”

[Photo: Daniel Ogren]

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