First books are the most difficult to write, mainly because the author hasn’t been published yet, therefore he or she has no track record. But if authors like JK Rowling (12 rejections), Frank Herbert (20 rejections), John Grisham (25 rejections), Madeline L’Engle (26 rejections), Dr. Seuss (27 rejections), Jack Canfield (134 rejections), Judy Blume (2 years of rejections), Janet Evanovich (10 years), Gertrude Stein (22 years!) and Beatrix Potter (eventually self published), had given up on their first books after receiving rejections, they would never have been published.
Here’s to those who hung in there after receiving negative, sometimes even cruel rejections, and finally got those first books published.
Emily Dickinson: "[Your poems] are quite as remarkable for defects as for beauties and are generally devoid of true poetical qualities."
Ernest Hemingway: "It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish it."
Mary Higgins Clark: "We found the heroine as boring as her husband did."
H.G. Wells: "An endless nightmare. I do not believe it would "take"...I think the verdict would be 'Oh don't read that horrid book'."
Herman Melville: "It is very long, rather old-fashioned..."
Jack London: "(Your book is) forbidding and depressing."
John le Carre: "You’re welcome to le Carré – he hasn’t got any future."
Never give up!!
It would be interesting to see the termination letters written to the book publishing staff who wrote the rejection letters. Although not, perhaps a charitable thought. So, Happy Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Liz | November 23, 2011 at 09:04 AM
Liz, what a great idea!
I read one once that was written by a writer to the agent or publisher who rejected her--in essence, she rejected the agent/editor's rejection letter! Very funny.
Posted by: penny warner | November 23, 2011 at 09:15 AM
Wow! Great list. I especially liked the the Mary Higgins Clark one.
Posted by: Priscilla | November 25, 2011 at 10:37 AM