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Writers: Failure is an Option

Posted on February 17th, 2009 in Writing Business by Olivia Reason
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So, have you been rejected lately?

Once upon a time, a young poet sent his poems to Atlantic Monthly. Their reply: Dear Mr. Robert Frost, we regret that The Atlantic has no place for your vigorous verse.

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In 1950, someone sent a Dutch manuscript to the publisher Alfred P. Knopf. The owner of the manuscript wanted to give English language rights for the work. The manuscript came with a reader’s report that blasted the book. It was too dull, the report said. It was “a dreary record of typical family bickering, petty annoyances and adolescent emotions.” 

This manuscript was allegedly so “bad”, that it was rejected 15 times before Doubleday bought it in 1952. It was called The Diary of Anne Frank.

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Once, the daughter of two missionaries sent in a manuscript to a publisher. It was a novel based on her experiences in China. “Americans don’t want to read anything about China,” scoffed the publisher and rejected The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

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One publisher said this about a young poetess: “There certainly isn’t enough genuine talent for us to take notice”. That was Sylvia Plath he was talking about.

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Because “you can’t sell animal stories to Americans” an American publisher refused rights to George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Another said that Jorge Luis Borges was “utterly untranslatable.” And one agent dumped the late best-selling mystery writer Tony Hillerman saying: “Get rid of all that Indian stuff.”

* * *

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot was rejected 17 times before it was published. Madeleine L’Engle amassed 26 rejection letters for A Wrinkle in Time. And J.K Rowling? Harry Potter was sunk 9 times before she found someone who would publish it.

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Watership Down by Richard Adams? 26 rejections. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: 38 rejections. Frank Herbert’s science fiction masterpiece Dune was rejected 20 times.

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Perhaps the best rejection story is the one about a manuscript that came across the desk of a London publisher in 1797. It was accompanied by a letter from one Reverend George Austen that said he thought the novel was really good and would the publisher consider it? The publisher didn’t even dignify the request with an answer. People were tired of moral stories from country preachers, he thought.

But the novel wasn’t written by the preacher. It was written by his daughter, Jane Austen. She would continue working on the novel until her death. That novel was Pride and Prejudice.

These writers knew that their work had merit. They knew they had given it all they had. So they regrouped, rewrote and kept rejecting their rejections.

No matter what it is, if you know you have given your best in doing something, then stand behind it. Reject your rejections.

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