Famous Author Rejection Letters: Examples Of Famous Author Rejections

writersrelief.com:

Many new or mid-level writers have received nasty or rude rejection letters. But when famous author rejection letters come to light, people laugh and say “What were those editors (or literary agents) thinking?” Many big names faced the same kind of adversity (and even hostility) in rejection letters that you may be facing now. Famous author rejection letters teach us a lot!

Read the whole story: writersrelief.com

Comments

[Bill Dodds]

12:38 PM on 08/12/2011

My most memorable was: "This is f**king awful" penciled in the margin.

At that point in my career just getting a personalized note was a step forward.

www.BillDodds.com

[Berlinica]

10:09 PM on 07/28/2011

JK Rowling had, I believe, more than a dozen rejection letters for the first Harry Potter novel. I'd really like to read a small book with just those letters, including the names of the editors who wrote them, and what they are doing today.

http://blog.berlinica.com/

[BlackJAC]

02:40 PM on 07/28/2011

Two of my particular favorite rejections I've received are 1) the form letter where they said they were just too busy to read my query so they were shooting me down right there and then just to lighten their own workload, and 2) the one where they said it "didn't make sense" for them to consider any of my other works just because they didn't like the one I initially offered them.

[coalman987]

02:41 PM on 07/27/2011

And every single one of those rejections rips a little bit of your soul apart. Perseverance is key.

[PatrickforO]

01:32 AM on 07/27/2011

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

One of my favorite quotes, and one that can certainly be applied to critics, armchair quarterbacks, manuscript reviewers and auditioners.

[Habitspark]

12:59 AM on 07/27/2011

A testament to the value of persistence!

[gourmand]

09:29 PM on 07/26/2011

E. E. Cummings dedicated his collection "No Thanks" to the publishers that rejected him. I always thought that was classy.

[glowdotor]

06:04 PM on 07/26/2011

Editors are pretentious, self-important little incompetents with fancy titles . 85% of their selections fall dead off the presses. In any other line of work, an 85% failure rate would be a recipe for getting fired. Jackasses. About as useful as monks in monasteries writing Bibles with quill pens as Gutenburg starts printing. Fortunately ebooks is rapidly making them obsolete. Good riddance.
--Neil Elliott, author of 40+ books (none self-published), hundreds of stories in eleven languages around the globe. Listed in CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS.

[Quinny]

02:59 PM on 07/26/2011

The facts are that in every form of endeavor, there are those that
are not going to get "the concept." The only way to overcome this is
to believe in yourself and persevere.

Selah