The Bulletproof
Writer:
How to Overcome
Constant Rejection to Become an Unstoppable Author
1.
Mike, what
compelled you to put together a list of rejected books that went on to fame and
glory? I wanted to support a main theme in
my new book--The Bulletproof Writer: How To Overcome Constant Rejection To Become An Unstoppable Author--that rejection is not necessarily an indictment of your work. There is no better way to demonstrate that to show you classic best sellers who got rejected.
2.
Were there
any titles that you were really surprised to see John your list? All of
them! In publishing, successes are public and failures are private. This sets
up a perception bias among writers that they are the only ones being rejected
when the truth is everyone around us is getting told “NO.”
3. What were
the biggest books to receive rejections? Depends on what you mean by biggest. Do you mean number of
books sold like JK Rowling? Do you mean literary lions like Ernest Hemingway?
Classics like Catcher in the Rye? One of the things I love about the list
I compiled is that shock is no longer possible.
4. How long did
it take to assemble? How did you go about researching this? I hired a librarian to do a lot of the footwork and then I
decided to put the funny in it by awarding the rejections with lines
like, Most
Likely To Make You Lactate With Rage.
5. Why do you
think so many critically-acclaimed, best-selling and noteworthy books were
initially rejected by so many publishers? The typical reasons that all of us experience rejections
--everything from publisher reticence (“We’ve published too many books like
it,” editorial preference (“I don’t like this type of writing”) to market
conditions (“We don’t know how to market this book because it’s cross-genre”).
Or it could have been that the editor was hungover or had indigestion when they
picked up the manuscript. Rejections and acceptances are so
subjective that even the smallest things have a dramatic effect. For example,
the editor might simply not like your agent and dismiss anything he has
to offer. I forgot to mention that we just published a sister page of famous
rejections—The
Biggest Collection Of Famous Rejection Letters, in which you can read the
actual letters of rejection written to famous authors like Alice Walker.
6. Does your
list simply show that acquisition editors, like book critics, can make huge
mistakes in judgment? YES.
Every book on my list is a testament to bad judgment. The scary
thing is to contemplate how many UNPUBLISHED manuscripts don't see the
light of day because of that bad judgment.
7. Is your list
a call to authors to self-publish or simply to not give up in the face of
rejection? Yes and yes. Self-publishing
Comes with its own curses so I don’t automatically recommend it as an
option.
8. Were you
rejected as a writer? Rejection
doesn’t just come in the form of manuscripts turned down. They come in the form
of insulting advances, sparse book signing attendances, bad reviews, poor
sales, the list goes on. I’m a full-time writer--I make a living at it-- So I
have a right to say this: The writer’s life is a constant stream of
slights punctuated by blockbuster rejections. I don't mean that to sound
cynical or pessimistic because I love what I do but this is a brutal business
that doesn't respond well to logic or common sense. f you don't have a coping strategy
for that reality you will not make it as a writer.
9. What advice
do you have for struggling writers?' Developing
resiliency is almost as important as developing your writing skills.
The
author says this about his book: “It shows newbies, midlisters, self-published
and best-selling authors how to transcend painful obstacles like rejected
manuscripts, bad reviews, insulting advances and poor sales. Using the latest studies in building grit and
resiliency you’ll cultivate the inner strength needed to push through adversity
and thrive under pressure”.
He
also notes: “Publishing is one of the few industries that systematically
rejects its most talented people. To
understand the scale of how badly it misjudges talent you only have to glance
how many times publishers rejected writers like William Faulkner, Vladimir
Nabokov, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, Jack Kerouac, and John Le Carre. Brilliant
writers like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Ursula Le Guin have amassed so many
literary rejection letters they could build a bonfire and keep a lot of us warm
for a week.”
Here
are some sample books he noted on his famously rejected list:
·
The Help by Kathryn
Stockett was rejected 60 times before she found a publisher. The
Help spent 100 weeks on the New York
Times bestseller list.
·
Jack
Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen received 140 rejections for their Chicken Soup for the Soul. They were
told that anthologies don’t sell. They
proved them wrong by selling 125 million copies.
·
James
Patterson’s The Thomas Berryman Number
was turned down by 31 publishers. Little
did they know that it would become a bestseller and win the Edgar for Best
Novel.
·
Dune by Frank Herbert
received 23 rejections yet it went on to become one of the best-selling science
fiction novels of all time.
·
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
received 21 rejections. One rejection
letter said, “I haven’t the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to
say. Apparently the author intends it to
be funny.”
·
Stephen
King’s first published novel Carrie was
rejected 30 times. One rejection letter
said, “We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative
utopias. They do not sell.”
·
William
Golding’s Lord of the Flies was
rejected 20 times. One editor wrote that
his book was, “an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and
dull.” Since then it has been adapted to
four films, translated into over 30 languages, and been read in quite a few
high schools.
·
Harry Potter and
the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling was rejected 12 times.
·
Even
though Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the
Wind was rejected 38 times it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and sold 30
million copies.
Keep on writing –
like these great writers, you too can break through!
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