Rejection is part of the road to writing success

According to the Guinness World Records, J.K. Rowling was the first billion-dollar author, and one of only five self-made female billionaires. But Rowling was rejected before she was a billionaire. As Scotsman.com reports, after Rowling found a literary agent, “the agency sent Rowling’s 200-page manuscript to 12 publishers, all of whom, to their eternal regret, turned down the book.”John Grisham spent three years working on his first novel, “A Time to Kill.” Then he submitted his work to publishers and got rejected, a lot. As Mary Beth Pringle explains in “John Grisham: A Critical Companion,” Grisham submitted his novel “to more than 25 publishers before Wynwood Press finally accepted it.”View the list »
Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel “The Help” has sold over 10 million copies, been translated into over 40 languages, and was made into a feature film. But before all that happened, it took a while for Stockett to even find an agent. As “The Telegraph” reports, Stockett “got at least 45 rejection letters from agents.” In the same report, Stockett admits the rejection letters made her feel “like shit,” but after she got over that feeling, she kept working and kept submitting. She’s probably glad she did.

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If you want to be like J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, or Kathryn Stockett, then you must have your work rejected before you become a phenomenal success. These writers, along with virtually every other successful writer, faced multiple rejections before finding the right agent or editor for their work.

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Rejection feels awful, but it is not the end. It is an opportunity to send your work somewhere else. Somewhere it will be appreciated. Instead of rejection, it’s redirection.

Barbara Kingsolver, author of the bestselling novel “The Poisonwood Bible,” explains the process like this: “This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'Not at this address'. Just keep looking for the right address.”

It’s hard to know ahead of time where the “right address” will be. Writing tastes are very subjective, so what interests one reader or editor might bore another. That’s why it’s important to continue to submit your work, just as J.K. Rowling (“Harry Potter”), John Grisham (“A Time to Kill”), and Kathryn Stockett (“The Help”) did with their first novels. View the list to learn more about the rejections that were part of their roads to success.

View the list
  • Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel “The Help” has sold over 10 million copies, been translated into over 40 languages, and was made into a feature film. But before all that happened, it took a while for Stockett to even find an agent. As “The Telegraph” reports, Stockett “got at least 45 rejection letters from agents.” In the same report, Stockett admits the rejection letters made her feel “like shit,” but after she got over that feeling, she kept working and kept submitting. She’s probably glad she did.
  • John Grisham spent three years working on his first novel, “A Time to Kill.” Then he submitted his work to publishers and got rejected, a lot. As Mary Beth Pringle explains in “John Grisham: A Critical Companion,” Grisham submitted his novel “to more than 25 publishers before Wynwood Press finally accepted it.”
  • According to the Guinness World Records, J.K. Rowling was the first billion-dollar author, and one of only five self-made female billionaires. But Rowling was rejected before she was a billionaire. As Scotsman.com reports, after Rowling found a literary agent, “the agency sent Rowling’s 200-page manuscript to 12 publishers, all of whom, to their eternal regret, turned down the book.”
View the list
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, San Mateo Creative Writing Examiner

Beth McMurray is a writer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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