For those of you who have had your work accepted by an agent - or even a publisher - you can look at these lists with amused interest.
For those of us who haven't, who have received SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many rejection slips (or e-mails) or to whom agents / publishers haven't even bothered replying, who are considering tossing in the towel and being "sensible" and "realistic" about accepting the fact that this writing thingie just isn't for us, I think that these 2 lists should restore some hope:
A list of 14 books, each of which was rejected AT LEAST 15 times. Some of them many, many more times than that. (One of my favourite 99 books of all time was rejected 121 times! [Every time that I re-read it, I consider declaring that it's in my top 36.] The editor who finally published Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance said of Pirsig's book, "It forced me to decide what I was in publishing for."):
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/14-best-selling-books-repeatedly-rejected-by-publishers.htm
And - on another web-site, "an extenstive collection of the some of the biggest errors of judgement in publishing history":
http://www.literaryrejections.com/best-sellers-initially-rejected/
This 2nd list includes the following:
“Hopelessly bogged down and unreadable.” The 1968 letter from an editor did not deter the author, Ursula K. Le Guin, as her book The Left Hand of Darkness goes on to become just the first of her many best-sellers, and is now regularly voted as the second best fantasy novel of all time, next to The Lord of the Rings.
Bit sloppy with their research there: The Left Hand of Darkness is regularly voted the 2nd best SCIENCE FICTION novel of all time, after Dune by Frank Herbert (which appears in the 1st list: rejected by 23 publishers). TLHOD also happens to be MY 2nd favourite sci-fi novel, but 1st is Woman On The Edge Of Time by Marge Piercy. Even if you HATE sci-fi (and would probably hate Dune), read these 2 books!
[Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy is regularly voted the 2nd best work of fantasy of all time, next to - yes - Lord Of The Rings. And Ursula K. Le Guin is voted the # AUTHOR in both catagories. Earthsea wipes the floor with Harry Potter AND Lord Of The Rings.]
NEVER lose your dream!
I think it helps to remember the experience of Prof. Allan Bloom, the author of "The Closing of the American Mind; How Higher Education has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students" (1987). A University of Chicago Scholar of social thought, Prof. Bloom sent his manuscript to at least 20 major publishers before Simon & Schuster finally accepted his work with a foreword by Saul Bellow. Once in print, the brilliant 382-page essay became an instant bestseller. As a nonfiction writer myself, I find it consoling to know that Bloom struggled to find acceptance but prevailed in the end.
Lyn Shepard, Berne, Switzerland
p.p.s. Do NOT watch the godawful FILM "Legend of Earthsea". LeGuin wanted her name removed from the credits. (But - of course - being #2 fantasy author of all time, she wasn't granted this mercy. Her name is splashed all over the DVD jacket.) I switched it off after 10 minutes, thoroughly nauseated. If I had owned the DVD, I would have ceremonially pissed on it then burned it.
Googling [film "Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea"], I found these sites:
http://io9.com/10-reasons-why-le-guins-earthsea-books-can-still-chang-1459354329 (on which I left a comment, now pending approval)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthsea
The U.S.-based Sci Fi Channel broadcast a three-hour loose adaptation for television [...] Titled Legend of Earthsea, it angered fans of the Earthsea novels (and Le Guin herself) with the announcement that Ged and the vast majority of the other characters would be played by Caucasians and with [added] characters. The religious practices of Atuan were portrayed differently, and the celibacy of Earthsea wizards overlooked as Ged and Tenar become sexually involved.
Le Guin was not involved in the production in any way. She did publish the following remarks on her website:
I can only admire Mr [Executive Producer Robert] Halmi's imagination, but I wish he'd left mine alone... I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended..." Would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books?"
(The evils of signing over film rights to your books without insisting on veto rights over the finished product... a luxury we beginner writers are NOT allowed to even sniff at. When negotiating with publishers over one of my books, I told the editor that I'd ALREADY sold the film rights [undeclared: to one of my step-daughters - who HAS produced films, but this is not necessary if you want to use this ruse - for 2€ + %age of profits].)
It is HIGHLY ironic that a web-site for writers (and artists) should not allow an "edit" option for questions and comments!!!
"Ursula K. Le Guin is voted the # AUTHOR in both catagories." Missed out the 2:
"Ursula K. Le Guin is voted the #2 AUTHOR in both catagories."