Forums / Publishing /
Don't Get Discouraged


  • Barbara
    Nov 16 10:45 PM 2007
    Reply
    I originally posted this on Allpoetry, but thought it apt for here, too.

    BOOKS/AUTHORS THAT WERE REJECTED BY PUBLISHERS

    Pearl S. Buck - The Good Earth - 14 times

    Norman Mailer - The Naked and the Dead - 12 times

    Patrick Dennis- Auntie Mame - 15 times

    George Orwell - Animal Farm

    Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull - 20 times

    Joseph Heller - Catch-22 - 22 times (!)

    Mary Higgins Clark - first short story - 40 times

    Alex Haley - before Roots - 200 rejections

    Robert Persig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - 121 times

    John Grisham - A Time to Kill - 15 publishers and 30 agents (he ended up publishing it himself)

    Chicken Soup for the Soul - 33 times

    Dr. Seuss - 24 times

    Louis L'Amour - 200 rejections

    Jack London - 600 before his first story

    John Creasy - 774 rejections before selling his first story. He went on to write 564 books, using fourteen names.

    Jerzy Kosinski - 13 agents and 14 publishers rejected his best-selling novel when he submitted it under a different name, including Random House, which had originally published it.

    Diary of Anne Frank

    FROM http://www.simonteakettle.com/famousauthors.htm

  • Barbara
    November 16, 2007
    Reply

    Okay.. then how about self publishing?

    These are just a few popular writers reported to have used self-publishing to launch their careers:

    William Blake
    Robbie Burns
    Edgar Rice Burroughs
    Samuel (Mark Twain) Clemens
    Alexander Dumas
    Zane Grey
    James Joyce
    Rudyard Kipling
    D.H. Lawrence
    Edgar Allen Poe
    George Bernard Shaw
    Henry David Thoreau
    Virginia Woolf
    Margaret Atwood
    Tom Clancy
    Stephen Crane
    Wayne Dyer
    Carl Sandberg....

    the list goes on.
    http://www.bookmarket.com/selfpublish.html (Self Publishing Hall Of Fame)

    • wolfcub
      April 17
      Reply
      and how do you self publish?

      • Barbara
        April 17
        Reply
        There are many self-publishing/vanity publishing firms out there. The one that a lot of people deal with is lulu.com (there's a link to them on you "my account' page). You have to join, but it's free for basic things, although you have to format, spellcheck, etc yourself. There are other sites out there that will do that for you for a fee (sometimes small, sometimes large). If you want to sell it in stores, then you'd need to purchase the book code.

        People buy your book online, and you can set the price. The more money you want, the higher the price of the book.

        Before going to any publisher, check them out. Completely. Just don't skim through the site, then decide. Go to their information, comparing it with other sites. Look for complaints on the internet, and ask other authors. On Allpoetry, there is a publishing forum, with a lot of topics regarding publishers. There are some places that people swear by, while others have had nothing but horror stories about that same place.

        • wolfcub
          April 17
          Reply
          Thanks! I think my parents recommended this. Can I publish stuff that's been on the internet (for example a story i put on here for critique then remove)?

          • Barbara
            April 18
            Reply
            If you're self publishing, then there should be no problems. If you're looking for an agent, etc, then: (I copied this from the Term of Use page on SW)
            "Publication houses often deal in terms of "first publication rights". It is our experience that temporary online publication does not constitute "first publication", but we make no guarantee that any publisher you may deal with in the future will agree. By participating in this site, you release us of any responsibility for your first publication rights. "

  • KodyBoye
    January 5
    Reply
    Yes, I agree with Barbara; don't get discouraged. It doesn't help at all. Don't give up your wanting to write; you WILL get there.

  • Oddities
    April 17
    Reply

    hmm

    the problem with self publishing, is it has no quality control.

    I could just mash my head on the keyboard for 300 pages, and assuming my check didnt bounce, they would happily print it for me.

  • princessleia101
    May 9
    Reply
    Wow. That's amazing how many famous authors got rejected.

  • Barbara
    July 27
    Reply
    A lot of times people get rejected when a publisher says the public isn't ready for the book yet

    Here's an interesting fact from Dark Hunter.com, about the author Sherrilyn Kenyon -

    'Factoid: The Dark-Hunter series was one of the most eagerly awaited series in publishing history. Thousands of fans from more than 28 countries were desperate to lay hands on the books a year before any of them were published (the anticipation was so great that Sherrilyn was mentioned in the Idiot's Guide to Vampires before ANY of the books had been published). DH fans threatened to storm the Flat Iron building in NY in order to gain the first glimpse of it.

    The irony is that it took Sherrilyn almost eight years from the completion of the first DH book to find a publisher willing to take a chance on the series.

    The most cited rejection was that the series concept was too different to be marketable.'

    'Her books were an overnight sensation that have given her an international cult following with devout fans in more than forty-five countries and landed her at the top of multiple bestseller lists including the New York Times, Publisher's Weekly and USA Today.'

    All goes to show NEVER GIVE UP!!!!
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