Reasons to Keep Writing

This information was compiled and posted on the Lesbian Fiction Forum and reposted here with permission. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who’s received a rejection letter.

 

Catherine O’Flynn’s Costa Book Award-winning What Was Lost was rejected 20 times before being accepted for publication. 

Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 was rejected 22 times (hence the title name) before being accepted for publication. 

Richard Bachs Jonathan Livingston Seagull was rejected 20 times before being accepted for publication. 

Norman Mailer’s What Was Lost was rejected 12 times before being accepted for publication. 

Pearl S. Buck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Good Earth was rejected 14 times before being accepted for publication. 

Robert Persig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was rejected 121 times before being accepted for publication. 

Norman Mailer’s A Time to Kill was rejected 45 times before being accepted for publication. 

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen’s Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected 33 times before being accepted for publication. 

Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected 27 times. 

James Joyce’s Dubliners was rejected 22 times. 

Irving Stone’s Lust for Life was rejected 16 times. 

Ellen Jackson’s Cinder Edna was rejected more than 40 times before it was accepted for publication. 

Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time was rejected by 26 publishers. 

Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries got rejected seventeen times. 

Richard Hooker’s M*A*S*H was rejected 17 times. 

Other tidbits: 
Jim Van Pelt sold the first novel he wrote. It took four years to write and twelve years to sell. 

Elizabeth Bear sold her fourth novel. By the time she sold it, she had written nine novels. 

Jon Evans sold his fifth, sixth, and seventh novels. His first four novels remain unpublished (and, according to him, rightfully so.) 

Joshua Palmatier’s first novel published was the fourth novel he wrote. 

Mark Del Franco sold his third novel (and trunked his first two as learning experiences). 

Alison Kent sold her second novel and trunked her first novel. 

A.C.E. Bauer’s first sale was his fourth written novel. 

Diana Peterfreund’s first published novel was the fifth book she wrote. 

Mette Ivie Harrison had written more than ten novels before being accepted for her first publication. Of the forty novels she’s written, three have been published.

Amy Sterling Casil sold the first novel she wrote, which came out of some stories she had published in the pro mag F&SF. 

Lois Bujold wrote three books; then her third was accepted after four rejections. 

Mary Higgins Clark was rejected forty times before selling her first story. 

Alex Haley received 200 rejections before writing Roots. 

Louis L’Amour received 200 rejections before he sold his first novel. 

Jack London received over 600 rejections before selling his first story.

 

To read the original post, check here. Be sure to thank them for sharing. <g>