Buck up! For writers, rejections aren't just inevitable – they are a way of life. Every writer gets rejections. Every. Single. One.
There are no exceptions.
Here is a tally that should, if not encourage you, at least bring you back to reality.
(The reality is this: KEEP WRITING!!)
___________________
The
Princess Diaries,
by Meg Cabot, was rejected by 17
publishers
Frank
Herbert’s Dune was
rejected 20
times.
Thor
Hyerdahl's Kon-Tiki was
rejected 20
times.
Richard
Hooker's novel M*A*S*H was
rejected 21
times.
James
Joyce's Dubliners was
rejected 22
times.
John
Grisham’s first novel was rejected 25
times.
Margaret
Mitchell’s Gone
With the Wind was rejected
by 25 publishers.
Madeleine
L'Engle's A
Wrinkle in Time was
turned down 29
times.
Stephen
King's Carrie was
rejected 30
times.
Jonathan
Livingston Seagull was
rejected 40
times.
Zen
and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was
rejected 121
times.
Chicken
Soup for the Soul by Jack
Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen received 134
rejections.
Louis
L’Amour was rejected over
200 times before
he sold any of his writing.
And
the grand prize goes to:
C.S.
Lewis, who
received over
800 rejections before he sold a single piece of writing.
(My personal goal is to beat C.S. Lewis. What's yours?)
My book INFIDELITY was rejected 38 times. Then went on to be nominated for a Pulitzer and made into a Lifetime Movie.
ReplyDeleteWrite because you love it.
Well put! You have a great story...and a great website!
Delete(It's here, for those who would like to check it out:)
http://www.annpearlman.net/blog/book/infidelity/
You are an inspiration!
I framed my first rejection letter and hung it on my wall because I knew I already had done something most people never do - - take a chance. I cited your blog on my FB page http://facebook.com/authorsbroadcast
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me about this, I've been writing on my blogs only and set my fiction work aside for the past few months and when I get a portable hard drive for backing up my fiction and art, I'll starting writing fiction again.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is Wow - that is truly remarkable!
ReplyDeleteGood on you. I got rejected once, by the New Yorker (Souts and Murmurs) and was overcome with self doubt. Since then I've only published assigned pieces. There's a novel on my hard disk, hiding for fear of rejection.
ReplyDelete800 TIMES!? Wow. Makes me sound like a complete novice.
ReplyDeleteI've had my latest work The Leviathan Chronicle rejected over ten times so far. But I'm not giving up, nor am I limiting myself to one piece of work or one genre or one size of story. I won't be beaten!