If you've made any attempt to have your work published, you have without a doubt encountered rejection. Rejection is a major part of a writer's life--no matter who you are. It's part of the business and no one escapes.
As a bit of encouragement for those of you wondering if you've received more rejections than anyone alive, I'm running these stats today on some names you may recognize. Take heart and keep trying!
- Jack London received 60 rejections before he sold his first story.
- George Orwell was told of Animal Farm, "It is impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S."
- Stephen King was told: "We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."
- William Faulkner was told: Are you kidding? I can't sell this!"
- Of his novel The Torrents of Spring, Ernest Hemingway was told: "It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish this."
- The authors of Chicken Soup for the Soul weathered a whopping 140 rejections before finding a publisher to take a chance on their idea.
- And my personal favorite, Gone With the Wind, received 38 rejections before Margaret Mitchell found a publisher.
So take heart as those rejection letters pile up in the corner. You're in good company!
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