I said I would get back with JK Rowling’s version of the answer to why the change in title - so here goes.
I didn’t get chance to ask any questions during today’s session at the Edinburgh Book Festival
http://www.edbookfest.co.uk but she was asked many questions - including one asking why the first book had a different name in America. Here’s the gist of what she said:
“You must remember that when I wrote the first book I knew that most children’s writers did not make a lot of money. I had anticipated that I would continue supporting myself and my daughter through my teaching and I would try to get my writing to fund itself in some way, so that I could justify continuing to write. When the first book was published I was delighted but also thought that it was likely that only three copies would be sold and none outside my immediate family.
…..
The decision to publish the book with a different title in the USA is one that I would like to have been able to go back and change. Actually the title was a compromise. The American publisher said that “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” did not really reflect the nature of the story and they wanted it to be called “Harry Potter and the School for Wizards”. I felt that that gave far too much away, so “Sorcerer’s Stone replaced Philosopher’s Stone” as a compromise. At the time I so pleased that I had a publisher that I didn’t really feel able to stand my ground. I now realise the problems it has caused, one bookseller in America told me that, after the first book was published, children kept trying to buy the Philosopher’s Stone book as they thought it was the sequel”.
After the session I managed to ask her if this would cause problems with the film – would they keep two versions? She said that it was a problem and that they may have to settle on one version – most likely the original title.
There is a very good interview that some people might like to look at on the Bloomsbury site
http://new.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter
