{"id":771,"date":"2019-12-08T15:08:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T15:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disciple4.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2023-04-09T11:56:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T11:56:31","slug":"first-time-rejections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/08\/first-time-rejections\/","title":{"rendered":"First-time rejections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Harry Potter and the\nPhilosopher\u2019s Stone<\/em><\/strong> by J.K. Rowling<\/strong><\/a>: The first Harry Potter book\nwas turned down by multiple publishers, including Penguin and HarperCollins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animal Farm<\/em><\/strong> by George Orwell<\/strong><\/a>: If T.S. Eliot had had his way, Animal Farm<\/em> would never have seen the light of\nday. As the head of publisher Faber and Faber, Eliot called the manuscript\n\u201cunconvincing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chicken Soup for the Soul<\/em><\/strong> by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen<\/strong><\/a>: Canfield and Hansen heard from 123\npublishers that their book had a stupid title, had no sex or violence, and no\none would read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. The Shack<\/em><\/strong> by William P. Young<\/strong><\/a>: Publishers either found this book too Christian<\/a> or\nnot Christian enough. So 15 photocopied editions led to a self-publishing\ncompany and eventually 15 million copies sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wonderful\nWizard of Oz<\/em><\/strong> by L. Frank Baum<\/a>: It\nhas several reprints, most often under the title The Wizard of Oz<\/em><\/strong>,\nwhich is the title of the popular 1902 Broadway musical adaptation<\/a> as well as the iconic 1939 live-action\nfilm<\/a>. It\nsold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain<\/a> in\n1956.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrie<\/em><\/strong> by Stephen King<\/strong><\/a>: The prolific Maine<\/a> writer\ngot so many no\u2019s (30) for his first attempt at a novel he threw it in the\ntrash. Luckily his wife fished it out. The Shack<\/em><\/strong> by William P. Young<\/strong><\/a>: Publishers either found this book too Christian<\/a> or\nnot Christian enough. So 15 photocopied editions led to a self-publishing\ncompany and eventually 15 million copies sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gone with the Wind<\/em><\/strong> by Margaret Mitchell<\/strong><\/a>: Nearly 40 publishers wished they had given\na damn about Mitchell\u2019s Civil War drama when it grossed more than $1 million\nand won a Pulitzer in its first year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firs\nbook of Mac Lucado \u2013 was rejected several times. After much perseverance, one\npublisher at last said he will publish it, but only this one. Lucado became one\nof the most read Christian authors of his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dune<\/em><\/strong> by Frank Herbert<\/strong><\/a>: More than 20 foolish publishers turned down\nFrank Herbert\u2019s classic that would become the highest-selling<\/a> science fiction novel of all time, at more than 12 million copies\nsold worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas<\/em><\/strong> by Gertrude Stein<\/strong><\/a>: Stein\u2019s only bestseller received a famous,\nrude rejection letter from a publisher who turned her down by mocking her\ntrademark style of repetition of simple sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Time to Kill<\/em><\/strong> by John Grisham<\/strong><\/a>: On his way to becoming a master novelist,\nGrisham\u2019s, an Arkansas<\/a> native,\nfirst book racked up rejections from 16 literary agents and 12 publishers\nbefore landing a deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord of the Flies<\/em><\/strong> by William Golding<\/strong><\/a>: Although Faber & Faber would eventually\npublish the book, the first reviewer called this book \u201crubbish and dull\u201d and\n\u201cpointless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlas Shrugged<\/em><\/strong> by Ayn Rand<\/strong><\/a>: Rand was already a successful writer when\nher publisher, who had first rights to her new book, declared it \u201cunsaleable\nand unpublishable.\u201d The book has since been called the second most influential\nbook ever, behind only the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Diary of a Young Girl<\/em><\/strong> by Anne Frank<\/strong><\/a>: As crazy as it sounds, 16 publishers\ndeclined to buy the story of Anne Frank\u2019s experiences in World War II.\nDoubleday\u2019s risk paid off as the book has sold more than 30 million copies to\ndate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moby Dick<\/em><\/strong> by Herman Melville<\/strong><\/a>: Publishers initially told Melville his long\nbook about whaling was \u201cnot at all suitable for the juvenile market.\u201d Ninth-graders<\/a> everywhere\nwish he had listened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dubliners<\/em><\/strong> by James Joyce<\/strong><\/a>: Because of the edgy content, this classic\nby James Joyce was not an easy sell. He was shot down 22 times before landing a\ndeal with Grant Richards Ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spy Who\nCame in From the Cold<\/em><\/strong> by John\nle Carr\u00e9<\/strong>: Now\nknown as one of the finest novels of the genre, one publisher rejected the book\nwhile saying of le Carr\u00e9, \u201cHe hasn\u2019t got any future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lolita<\/em><\/strong> by Vladimir Nabokov<\/strong><\/a>: One publisher said of this book, \u201cI\nrecommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.\u201d If it had\nbeen, one of the best books of all time would have been lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hunt for Red October<\/em><\/strong> by Tom Clancy<\/strong><\/a>: Alec Baldwin should thank Tom Clancy for\nbeing persistent. Without Clancy believing in his book through 12 rejections,\nthere never would have been the bestseller or the great movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kon-Tiki<\/em><\/strong> by Thor Heyerdahl<\/strong><\/a>: Twenty rejections from publishers didn\u2019t\nstop this true account of men adrift at sea from making it into book form in 66\ndifferent languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auntie Mame<\/em><\/strong> by Patrick Dennis<\/strong><\/a>: Auntie Mame<\/em> was\non the receiving end of 15 rejection letters for being too outrageous, but it\nbecame a bestseller, selling 2 million copies in its first run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jungle Book<\/em><\/strong> by Rudyard Kipling<\/strong>: Kipling\u2019s timeless story was rejected\nmultiple times, with one publisher commenting that Kipling did not even\nunderstand the English language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dances with Wolves<\/em><\/strong> by Michael Blake<\/strong><\/a>: Michael Blake, born in North Carolina<\/a>, lived out of his car while struggling to finish Wolves<\/em>, and then every major publisher rejected it. Of\ncourse, lucky for him, a young man named Kevin Costner found a copy and the\nrest is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne of Green Gables<\/em><\/strong> by Lucy Maud Montgomery<\/strong><\/a>: Countless girls read this book or watched\nthe made-for-TV movie<\/a> based on it. But Montgomery was turned down by five publishers\nbefore securing a book deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Princess Diaries<\/em><\/strong> by Meg Cabot<\/strong><\/a>: Cabot, from Indiana<\/a>, says\nher novel was rejected by \u201calmost every publishing house in America.\u201d But she\npersevered and the book and its sequels have sold millions of copies and been\ntranslated to the silver screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco Examiner <\/em><\/strong>by Rudyard Kipling<\/strong>. He got the following response<\/a>: \u201c…you just don\u2019t know how to use the English language.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life comes in stories: use this link to subscribe to occasional stories via email: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/vfd32z4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone by J.K. Rowling: The first Harry Potter book was turned down by multiple publishers, including Penguin and HarperCollins. Animal Farm by George Orwell: If T.S. Eliot had had his way, Animal Farm would never have seen the light of day. As the head of publisher Faber and Faber, Eliot called the manuscript \u201cunconvincing.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1418,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disciple4.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}