When I expressed concern to my publisher because Homunculus had sold fewer than 500 copies after the initial sales curve had pretty much bottomed out, he told me the following:
• Dylan Thomas' first collection of short stories, when he was already a known poet, sold 200 copies.
• Hemingway's In Our Time sold 1,500 copies total in the first TWO printings.
• Several years ago, of the five finalists for the National Book Award in Fiction, NONE had sold more than 200 copies.
and maybe most importantly...
• It's not unusual for sales to spike again, such as when a book gains the favor of a university teacher.
I would love to collect lots of these little facts and put them all here for us writers who aren't in the business of writing bestsellers. Please email your fact (and your source) and I'll add everything I get. And check back often, because I know there are lots of these.
Norman MacLean's Lost Masterpiece
Any writer who has ever been yanked around by a publisher or treated rudely an editor will find the following irresistible.
Norman MacLean was the author of A River Runs Throught It – a brilliant short story that became an excellent movie. This letter was written in 1981 to Charles Elliott of Alfred A. Knopf publishers.
Knopf was the publisher who accepted MacLean’s first book before rejecting it, but was courting Maclean for his second manuscript – Young Men and Fire.
Letter to Alfred A. Knopf, Publishers
Dear Mr. Elliott:
I have discovered that I have been writing you under false pretenses, although stealing from myself more than from you. I have stolen from myself the opportunity of seeing the dream of every rejected author come true.
The dream of every rejected author must be to see, like sugar plums dancing in his head, please-can’t-we-see-your-next-manuscript letters standing in piles on his desk, all coming from publishing companies that rejected his previous manuscript, especially from the more pompous of the fatted cows grazing contentedly in the publishing field. I am sure that, under the influence of those dreams, some of the finest fuck-you prose in the English language has been composed but, alas, never published. And to think that the rare moment in history came to me when I could in actuality have written the prose masterpiece for all rejected authors – and I didn’t even see that history had swung wide its doors to me.
You must have known that Alfred A. Knopf turned down my first collection of stories after playing games with it, or at least the game of cat’s-paw, now rolling it over and saying they were going to publish it and then rolling it on its back when the president of the company announced it wouldn’t sell. So I can’t understand how you could ask if I’d submit my second manuscript to Alfred A. Knopf, unless you don’t know my race of people. And I can’t understand how it didn’t register on me – ‘Alfred A. Knopf’ is clear enough on your stationery.
But, although I let the big moment elude me, it has given rise to little pleasures. For instance, whenever I receive a statement of the sales of ‘A River Runs Through It’ from the University of Chicago Press, I see that someone has written across the bottom of it, ‘Hurrah for Alfred A. Knopf.’ However, having let the great moment slip by unrecognized and unadorned, I can now only weakly say this: if the situation ever arose when Alfred A. Knopf was the only publishing house remaining in the world and I was the sole remaining author, that would mark the end of the world of books.
Very sincerely,
Norman Maclean
I don’t necessarily recommend this to everyone, but it’s something of a thrill to see MacLean do it.
from www.examiner.com
30 famous authors whose works were rejected (repeatedly, and sometimes rudely) by publishers
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•March 20th, 2009 2:41 am ET
The revered sage Frank Sinatra once said, "The best revenge is massive success."
He never spoke a truer word, particularly when it comes to aspiring authors who, after suffering severe smackdowns from publishers, went on to become renowned writers.
Think this has happened to only a select few? Guess again. Cast your eye upon this list of Cinderella authors (and the nasty little notes publishers sent them) and savor the taste of their sweet, sweet revenge.
1. Stephen King
Mr. King received dozens of rejections for his first novel, Carrie; he kept them tidily nailed to a spike under a timber in his bedroom.
One of the publishers sent Mr. King's rejection with these words:
We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.
2. William Golding
Mr. Golding's Lord of the Flies was rejected by 20 publishers. One denounced the future classic with these words (which should be inscribed on the hapless publisher's tomb):
an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.
3. John le Carré
After Mr. le Carré submitted his first novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, one of the publishers sent it along to a colleague, with this message:
You’re welcome to le Carré – he hasn’t got any future.
4. Anne Frank
According to one publisher, The Diary of Anne Frank was scarcely worth reading:
The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level.
15 publishers also rejected The Diary of Anne Frank.
5. Joseph Heller
In an act of almost unparalled stupidity, one publisher wrote of Mr. Heller's Catch-22:
I haven’t the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to say…Apparently the author intends it to be funny – possibly even satire – but it is really not funny on any intellectual level.
6. J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (later Sorceror’s) Stone was rejected by a dozen publishers, including biggies like Penguin and HarperCollins. Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, only took it on at the behest of the CEO’s eight-year old daughter, who begged her father to print the book. God bless you, sweetheart.
7. Ursula K. Le Guin
One publisher sent this helpful little missive to Ms. Le Guin regarding her novel, The Left Hand of Darkness:
The book is so endlessly complicated by details of reference and information, the interim legends become so much of a nuisance despite their relevance, that the very action of the story seems to be to become hopelessly bogged down and the book, eventually, unreadable. The whole is so dry and airless, so lacking in pace, that whatever drama and excitement the novel might have had is entirely dissipated by what does seem, a great deal of the time, to be extraneous material. My thanks nonetheless for having thought of us. The manuscript of The Left Hand of Darkness is returned herewith.
The Left Hand of Darkness went on to win both the Hugo and the Nebula awards.
8. George Orwell
One publisher rejected Mr. Orwell's submission, Animal Farm, with these words:
It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA.
9. Tony Hillerman
Mr. Hillerman, now famous for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels, was initially told by publishers to
Get rid of all that Indian stuff.
10. William Faulkner
One publisher exclaimed in the rejection letter for Mr. Faulkner's book, Sanctuary:
Good God, I can’t publish this!
11. John Grisham
Mr. Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was rejected by a dozen publishers and 16 agents before breaking into print and launching Mr. Grisham's best-selling career.
12. Vladimir Nabokov
Mr. Nabokov's Lolita was greeted by one publisher with these words:
…overwhelmingly nauseating, even to an enlightened Freudian…the whole thing is an unsure cross between hideous reality and improbable fantasy. It often becomes a wild neurotic daydream…I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.
13. Sylvia Plath
According to one publisher, Ms. Plath's ability as a poet was nothing special:
There certainly isn't enough genuine talent for us to take notice.
14. ee cummings
Mr. Cummings’ first work, The Enormous Room, was rejected by 15 publishers. He eventually self-published the book and it went on to become considered a masterpiece of modern poetry. The kicker? He dedicated the book to the 15 publishers who rejected him. Ouch.
15. Irving Stone
Mr. Stone’s Lust for Life was rejected 16 times, once with this helpful synopsis:
A long, dull novel about an artist.
The book went on to sell over 25 million copies.
Rudyard Kipling didn't know how to write?
16. Rudyard Kipling
I’m sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.
These were the words used by one of the editors of the San Francisco Examiner newspaper when rejecting one of Mr. Kipling’s short stories. Mr. Kipling is now a revered author and the San Francisco Examiner is….
17. Frank Herbert
Dune was rejected 20 times before successfully reaching print – and becoming one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time.
18. Richard Adams
Mr. Adams' Watership Down was rejected since
Older children wouldn’t like it because its language was too difficult.
19. Madeleine L'Engle
Ms. L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by 26 publishers before finally breaking into print. It went on to win the 1963 Newbery Medal.
20. Jack Kerouac
This was one publisher's take on Mr. Kerouac's On the Road:
His frenetic and scrambled prose perfectly express the feverish travels of the Beat Generation. But is that enough? I don't think so.
21. Margaret Mitchell
Ms. Mitchell's Gone With the Wind was rejected 38 times before finally finding a publisher.
22. Judy Blume
Ms. Blume received “nothing but rejections” for two years.
According to Ms. Blume:
I would go to sleep at night feeling that I'd never be published. But I'd wake up in the morning convinced I would be. Each time I sent a story or book off to a publisher, I would sit down and begin something new. I was learning more with each effort. I was determined. Determination and hard work are as important as talent.
Determination and hard work certainly did the trick for Ms. Blume, who is now considered to be one of the most influential children's literature writers of her generation.
23. Kenneth Grahame
Mr. Grahame’s Wind in the Willows was refused by a publisher because it was an
Irresponsible holiday story
24. Isaac Bashevis Singer
One jaded publisher rejected a submission of Mr. Singer's with the words:
It’s Poland and the rich Jews again.
The long-winded Marcel Proust
25. Marcel Proust
Mr. Proust’s behemoth Remembrance of Things Past received this delightfully plain-spoken critique from one publisher:
My dear fellow, I may be dead from the neck up, but rack my brains as I may I can't see why a chap should need thirty pages to describe how he turns over in bed before going to sleep.
26. Jasper Fforde
Mr. Fforde received 76 rejection letters before finally seeing his first novel, The Eyre Affair, in print. The Eyre Affair is now considered a classic of the modern fantasy genre.
27. Meg Cabot
The Princess Diaries slipped through the hands of 17 publishers before finally being accepted for publication.
28. Thor Heyderdahl
Mr. Heyerdahl's classic adventure narrative, The Kon Tiki Expedition, was rejected 20 times before finding a publisher.
29. Jorge Luis Borges
One publisher rejected Mr. Borges' work because it was:
utterly untranslatable.
30. D.H. Lawrence
After reading Mr. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, one publisher warned:
for your own sake do not publish this book.
Of these 30 publisher rejects, three are in the top ten list of the world's richest authors.
