8 Famous Writers Who Faced Rejection

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Article by: Lizzie Exton, freelance writer at Globe Soup.

When you look at your bookshelves and read all those illustrious names and titles, it’s easy to believe that publication was guaranteed for such writers. The truth is, a writer who hasn’t experienced rejection is a rare if non-existent creature. Almost all writers who eventually make their way to publication have had to fight for it, and there are some shining examples of brilliant authors who have experienced multiple turn-downs from publishers and agents.

The next time your manuscript is returned with a firm ‘no’, think of some of these writers and where they are now. It might just give you the renewed motivation and inspiration you need to put yourself out there again.

Stephen King

The master of modern horror didn’t have an easy time getting his first novel, Carrie, published. Although it went on to receive widespread acclaim and was adapted into a hit movie, King’s manuscript was repeatedly turned down and the writer kept his rejection letters on a spike in his bedroom. 

Reflecting on rejection in The New York Times in 1985, King said: ‘I think being rejected can be very beneficial, especially if the work really isn’t good.’ It’s probably a valuable lesson on finding the positives in rejection, taking it as an opportunity to polish and perfect.

Jane Austen

Say the name ‘Jane Austen’ and nine times out of ten, the first thing to spring to mind is ‘Pride and Prejudice’. The novel is so ingrained in our national culture and psyche that the idea of it not existing is hard to comprehend. But if Austen had given up after it was first rejected, we may never have heard of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.

In 1797, sixteen years before it made it to print, Austen’s father sent her manuscript to publishers Cadell and Davies, one of very few publishing houses to print works by women. They rejected it with no feedback and just five terse words: ‘Declined by return of post’. It didn’t stop Austen from trying again years later, by which time she had already penned many of her other world-famous novels.

Agatha Christie

It’s hard to imagine a world without the crime queen’s books in it, but that might have been the case had Agatha Christie given up after failing to publish her first novel. Having penned a complete manuscript aged just 22, Christie’s first attempt received rejection after rejection.

Rather than throw in the towel, she wrote a second novel and, after multiple rejection letters, it was finally accepted. Christie went on to write a total of 15 short story collections and an impressive 72 novels.

JK Rowling

Harry Potter has enthralled children and adults for well over twenty years, but the boy who lived may never have made it into print. Rowling’s original manuscript was rejected by twelve different publishing houses before Bloomsbury took a chance on her.

One rejection letter informed Rowling that they ‘could not publish it with commercial success’. More fool them, as Rowling has sold more than 500 million copies and now has a net worth of well over $1 billion.

Joseph Heller

Any idea how Catch-22 came by its title? It was because Joseph Heller’s World War Two-based masterpiece was rejected 22 times before making it to print. One publisher dismissed it by saying ‘I haven’t the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to say’, clearly missing the novel’s entire message about the stupidity of war.

While it received mixed reviews on publication, the text has gone on to be very influential and something of a cult hit. Heller went on to write multiple novels, short stories and plays, although Catch-22 remains his most famous work.

Maya Angelou

The civil rights activist, poet and author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was another writer who took the positives from rejection. Speaking to TIME magazine shortly before her death, Maya Angelou said: ‘An editor considered my writing too fanciful, or too plain, too abstract or too concrete. I could go on for hours. In the end, though, only one attitude enabled me to move ahead. That attitude said that ‘Rejection can simply mean redirection’.

Despite various manuscripts being turned down, Angelou’s determination to see her work into print remained steadfast. Without her perseverance, we’d be missing some out on some of the 20th century’s most celebrated texts.

William S. Golding

Lord of the Flies is now a staple of most secondary school curriculum, but William S. Golding’s novel was turned down by no fewer than 20 publishing houses before it eventually saw the light of day. 

In 1953, Golding was a school teacher who had written snatches of his seminal work during his lunch breaks. Virtually every major publishing house rejected it until, by a stroke of luck, one publisher at Faber & Faber pulled his manuscript back off the rejection pile and gave him a second chance.

Malorie Blackman

Blackman perhaps holds the record for rejections and the award for perseverance. Now a celebrated children’s author, holder of an OBE for services to literature and a former Children’s Laureate, it’s difficult to believe that her first book was rejected 82 times.

Blackman was so desperate to be a writer that she stuck to her guns, and told herself she would only have given up after 1,000 rejection letters. Today, she has more than 60 children’s books in print and her Noughts and Crosses series has made her a household name.

And the list could go on. Writing might become a career, but it can also feel like a calling in life and, as these writers prove, sometimes you just have to keep chasing the dream of publication even when everything goes against you. Perseverance has paid off for many successful authors, and if you believe in your work and the quality of your writing, then it’s always worth just one more submission. You never know when an incredible stroke of luck will fall. These author’s stories can provide that much-needed motivation when the next rejection email lands, and offer a glimmer of hope to us all.

Lizzie Exton is a freelance writer, editor and proof-reader, who has previously worked for Penguin Random House. While her fiction writing is mainly for adults, she also published her debut children’s book, Gordon the Gremlin, in 2020.