JK Rowling announces new novel - for adults

Photograph: David Fisher / Rex Features

Booksellers up and down the country will be rejoicing: JK Rowling has confirmed plans for a new novel, this time for adults and "very different" to Harry Potter.

The news should certainly help dissipate the trade's grief over the end of her bestselling Harry Potter sequence, which have together shifted more than 400m copies around the world.

The author is ruling a line under her children's output for publisher Bloomsbury – the imprint which has launched her work to a worldwide audience of both children and adults – by signing up to Little, Brown for her adult output in the UK and USA. Other Hachette imprints will be responsible for publication in other territories. Unlike the Potter books, the ebook version will be available simultaneously with print.

Rowling said of today's announcement: "Although I've enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series … The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry's success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life."

Rowling's new publisher is proving as tight-lipped as her old one. Apart from the fact that it's not written for children, Little, Brown is releasing very little information about the contents of the book. A spokesperson for the publisher refused to give any indication of what the book will be about or what its genre will be.

The book's title, publication date, and further details are being stored up for an announcement later this year. But if Rowling is entering "a new phase" of her writing life, grateful booksellers can presume more than one book for adults is on the way.

Lindesay Irvine

guardian.co.uk,