50 Iconic Writers Who Were Repeatedly Rejected

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50 Iconic Writers Who Were Repeatedly Rejected

1. Dr. Seuss: Here is a list of all the books that Dr. Seuss' publisher rejected.
2. William Golding: William Golding's Lord of the Flies was rejected 20 times before becoming published.
3. James Joyce: James Joyce's Ulysses was judged obscene and rejected by several publishers.
4. Isaac Asimov: Several of Asimov's stories were rejected, never sold, or eventually lost.
5. John le Carre: John le Carre's first novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, was passed along because le Carre 'hasn't got any future'.
6. Jasper Fforde: Jasper Fforde received 76 rejections before getting The Eyre Affair published.
7. William Saroyan: William Saroyan received a 7 000 rejection slips before selling his first short story.
8. Jack Kerouac: Some of Kerouac's work was rejected as pornographic.
9. Joseph Heller: Joseph Heller wrote a story as a teenager that was rejected by the New York Daily News.
10. Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows was not intended to be published, and was rejected in America before appearing in England.
11. James Baldwin: James Baldwin’s Giovanni's Room was called 'hopelessly bad'.
12. Ursula K. Le Guin: An editor told Ursula K. Le Guin that The Left Hand of Darkness was 'endlessly complicated'.
13. Pearl S. Buck: Pearl Buck's first novel, East Wind: West Wind received rejections from all but one publisher in New York.
14. Louisa May Alcott: Louisa May Alcott was told to stick to teaching.
15. Isaac Bashevis Singer: Before winning the Nobel Prize, Isaac Bashevis Singer was rejected by publishers.
16. Agatha Christie: Agatha Christie had to wait four years for her first book to be published.
17. Tony Hillerman: Tony Hillerman was told to 'get rid of the Indian stuff'.
18. Zane Grey: Zane Grey self-published his first book after dozens of rejections.
19. Marcel Proust: Marcel Proust was rejected so much he decided to self-publish.
20. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen: Chicken Soup for the Soul received 134 rejections.
21. William Faulkner: William Faulkner's book, Sanctuary, was called unpublishable.
22. Patrick Dennis: Auntie Mame got 17 rejections.
23. Meg Cabot: The bestselling author of The Princess Diaries keeps a mail bag of rejection letters.
24. Richard Bach: 18 publishers thought a book about a seagull was ridiculous before Jonathan Livingston Seagullwas picked up.
25. Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit had to be published by Potter herself.
26. John Grisham: John Grisham's A Time to Kill was rejected by 16 publishers before finding an agent who eventually rejected him as well.
27. Shannon Hale: Shannon Hale was rejected and revised a number of times before Bloomsbury published The Goose Girl.
28. Richard Hooker: The book that inspired the film and TV show M*A*S*H* was denied by 21 publishers.
29. Jorge Luis Borges: It's a good thing not everyone thought Mr. Borges' work was 'utterly untranslatable'.
30. Thor Heyerdahl: Several publishers thought Kon-Tiki was not interesting enough.
31. Vladmir Nabokov: Lolita was rejected by five publishers in fear of prosecution for obscenity before being published in Paris.
32. Laurence Peter: Laurence Peter had 22 rejections before finding success with The Peter Principles.
33. D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers faced rejection, and D.H. Lawrence didn't take it easily.
34. Richard Doddridge Blackmore:  Was turned down 18 times before getting published.
35. Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath had several rejected poem titles.
36. Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance faced an amazing 121 rejections before becoming beloved by millions of readers.
37. James Patterson: Patterson was rejected by more than a dozen publishers before an agent he found in a newspaper article sold his novel.
38. Gertrude Stein: Gertrude Stein submitted poems for 22 years before having anything accepted.
39. E.E. Cummings: E.E. Cummings named the 14 publishers who rejected No Thanks in the book itself.
40. Judy Blume: Judy Blum received nothing but rejections for two years and can't look at Highlights without wincing.
41. Irving Stone: Irving Stone's Lust for Life was rejected by 16 different editors.
42. Madeline L'Engle: Madeline L'Engle's masterpiece A Wrinkle in Time faced rejection 26 times before willing the Newberry Medal.
43. Rudyard Kipling: In one rejection letter, Mr. Kipling was told he doesn't know how to use the English language.
44. J.K. Rowling: J.K. Rowling submitted Harry Potter to 12 publishing houses, all of which rejected it.
45. Frank Herbert: Before reaching print, Frank Herbert's Dune was rejected 20 times.
46. Stephen King: Stephen King filed away his first full length novel The Long Walk after it was rejected.
47. Richard Adams: Richard Adams's two daughters encouraged him to publish Watership Down as a book, but 13 publishers didn't agree.
48. Anne Frank: One of the most famous people to live in an attic, Anne Frank's diary had 15 rejections.
49. Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind was rejected 38 times.
50. Alex Haley: The Roots author wrote every day for eight years before finding success. 

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