Bloomsbury accepted J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter manuscript in 1996.
Rowling had begun writing the story after conceiving Harry Potter during a train journey from Manchester to London in 1990. She worked on the manuscript for years, including while living in Portugal and later as a single mother in Edinburgh. Literary agent Christopher Little submitted the manuscript to publishers.
Bloomsbury editor Barry Cunningham acquired the book, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published the following year, in 1997. The interval matters because the acceptance year and publication year are often mistakenly treated as the same date. The manuscript’s success eventually turned the series into a global publishing phenomenon.