Got Rejections?

By Guest Blogger and TLC Man of the Blog William Simon

James Lee Burke, hailed today as the "Faulkner of Modern Crime Fiction" holds the record for Most Rejections from a Publisher; his novel, THE LOST GET BACK BOOGIE was rejected one hundred and eleven (yes… 111) times. When it was published in 1986, BOOGIE was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize. (Larry McMurtry won that year for LONESOME DOVE.)

"Richard Hooker" spent seven years writing a humorous war novel based on his experiences as a doctor in Korea. The manuscript was rejected by twenty-one publishers before William Morrow bought the rights to the novel, originally titled "Mobile Army Surgical Hospital". An editor rechristened the manuscript M*A*S*H*. M*A*S*H* became a runaway best-seller, spawning a blockbuster movie and one of the longest running series in television history.

Louis L'Amour, possibly the most respected author in the Western genre received more than 350 rejections before he made his first sale. As of this date, there are more than 200 million Louis L'Amour books in print.

British thriller writer John Creasy received 774 rejections before his first sale, and went on to author a total of 564 novels, featuring such characters as The Baron, The Toff, and other British "gentlemen heroes", and often had up to five manuscripts in the works simultaneously. To this day, Creasy is considered one of the pre-eminent writers in the genre.

Dr. Seuss' first children's book "And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street" was rejected by twenty-seven publishers before Vanguard Press "took a chance". Nothing more needs to be said.

Margaret Mitchell's classic "Gone with the Wind" was turned down by more than thirty-seven publishers.

Mary Higgins Clark was rejected more than forty times before selling her first short story. More than 30 million copies of her books are in print today.

Fifteen publishers and thirty agents turned down John Grisham's first novel, "A Time to Kill". More than 60 million copies of his books are now in print.

Doctor No, E.T., Home Alone, Forrest Gump, Speed, and Raiders of the Lost Ark were ALL rejected by every major studio in Hollywood.

Rudyard Kipling received a rejection letter from the San Francisco Examiner that said, in part, "Mr. Kipling, it is obvious that you have no grasp of the English Language."

Dean Koontz was strongly advised by an English Professor to find "meaningful work", as he would never succeed as a writer.

((Second all time favorite - W.)) Eight years after his novel "Steps" won the National Book Award, Jerzy Kosinski permitted a young writer to change the name and title of the book, and nothing else, and send the re-typed manuscript to various publishers. Every single publishing house rejected it, including Random House who had published the original and proudly displayed the National Book Award for it.

((First all time favorite - W.)) A young film school graduate got the necessary permissions from the estates of the writers, and submitted a word for word line by line copy of the screenplay to CASABLANCA under the play's original title, "Everybody Comes to Rick's." Every studio passed on it, with Warner Brothers (who did the original) saying "No FemJep (Hollywood slang for 'Female in Jeopardy') ....can't sell it. Can you toss in a serial killer?" Several agents responded to the prankster with comments like "Too old and archaic", "Where's the Kid Action?", and "Unbelievably stupid; no one acts this way in real life."

((ULTIMATE All Time Favorite - W)) Back in 1962, upon viewing initial film of Sean Connery as James Bond, a United Artists executive sent a formal memo out criticizing the producers casting choice, ending with the line "We can do better than [Connery]."

William Simon, Man of the Blog and Friend of the Tarts, is in his real life the owner and lead investigator for Abberline Investigations, a licensed investigations company that deals exclusively  in computer crime.  William publishes under the pseudonym 'Will Graham'.

Comments

[ArkansasCyndi]

Thanks William. I so needed to read this! Not to mention, I got some great laughs.

This is business is SO arbitrary... It seems like you like to have the right script, at the right time, landing on the right desk, at exactly the appropriate moment. It's amazing anyone gets published.

No, wait...that explains how some of the cr*p on the market gets published.

[Harley]

it always helps me to envision the great "Them" as the 24-year old overworked assistand, reading the manuscript on the subway, munching his egg salad sandwich, wiping it off the pages -- or sitting at her desk in the Beverly Hills office with her Diet Coke, trying to get through her mountain of spec scripts before her boss calls her from Spago and makes her start the afternoon round of returning phone calls.

What do these children know from Casablanca or Jerzy Kosinski?

[Mary Storyteller]

Timely reminder -- and rejection hits in so many areas of life. How does one find the courage and positive spirits to keep trying?

[Kathy Reschini Sweeney]

Wow.

The thing that amazes me is how much really bad stuff gets published/produced.

I tried to watch some of the new Fall TV shows and the only one I could get through was "Private Practice" and that's only because I already 'knew' and cared about one of the characters. The other shows were so full of cliches that it was painful to watch. Big stars, big sets - somebody decided to spend real money on these shows and they are terrible.

Great blog, William!

[michele martinez]

Thank you for collecting all this information in one place, William. I've geard bits and pieces of it over time, but the list should be given to every aspiring writer. Of course, it begs the question of what unsung masterpieces will never reach their "I told you so!" moment.

[Tom]

All you can do is decide whether or not you're in love with your Muse. If you can't help but write or sing or dance or paint, there's your answer.

LOL, Harley.

Thanks, William.

[William Simon]

It scares me to death, y'all. Especially when one considers there is NO sense of history these days; to an entire generation, Nostalgia is Breakfast....

[Ladytink_534]

I bet there are quite a few people that would like to eat their words and rejections now!

[Rebecca the Bookseller]

Laurell K. Hamilton made some people eat their words - in the forward to one of her books ("Strange Candy, perhaps?) she talks about how much she enjoyed reminding certain people that they had rejected her earlier work once she became successful.

I thought it was great.

[Tom]

William is right (well, duhhh) about memory's duration. Horizons aren't too wide, either.

Last year I was trying hard to find an American/WGA agent for an Australian friend. He has pretty significant screenwriting credits -- he did the adaptation of BREAKER MORANT from stage to screen. Nothing wrong with an Oscar nomination, is there?

None of the agency screeners had ever heard of the film or of Jon. Not all had heard of Australia. Some were unsure people down there had electricity.

[ArkansasCyndi]

I heard an editor from TOR speaking at one of the RWA conference. This is the story she told.. She gets lots of unsolicited stuff and she reads a lot of it and rejects a lot. One day while reading through the Best Seller List, she noticed THE MUMMY by Anne Rice. Anne Rice had taken her name off the MS before sending and this editor rejected it. Said she almost died. Went in to her boss's office "to confess" that she'd rejected Anne Rice.

[Tom]

That may have been a mistake from the business point of view, but on the merits of the writing, she may have been correct. I stopped reading Rice. She never really delivers the goods.

But publishers love her . . .

[urbansherpa]

Great blog... I LOVE these stories! Most 'overnight successes' have a drawer full of rejection slips.