JK Rowling's teaching application before Harry Potter goes for sale at $250,000

A teaching application sent by JK Rowling before the publication of the first Harry Potter book has gone up for sale for a six-figure sum.

The 12-page bundle, which documents Rowling's application for a teacher spot at Leith Academy, a state school in Edinburgh, is being sold for $250,000 (£194,721) by Moments In Time, a seller of rare items, TMZ reported.

Rowling signed the forms on 21 June, 1996. At that time, she has finished the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, had secured representation, and was looking for a publishing house.

Just two months after Rowling sent her teaching application, Bloomsbury agreed to publish the first volume of the Harry Potter series.

The author signed her book deal in August 1996 and the novel came out the following year, in June 1997.

Rowling did go on to teach at Leith Academy. She said on Twitter in 2016 that she still occasionally encounters some of her former students.

The author earned a BA in French and Classics at Exeter University and trained as a teacher at the University of Edinburgh's Moray House School of Education.

She listed those qualifications in her application for Leith Academy, in addition to her experience teaching adolescents in Portugal.

The salary listed for the teaching position is of £16,572 ($21,276) per annum.

Rowling, whose manuscript was rejected 12 times before finding a home and who was warned not to quit her day job, ended up doing just that. Her net worth has now reached £700m ($898m) according to The Sunday Times.