50 Iconic Writers Who Were Repeatedly Rejected

[licksnkissez]

    Dr. Seuss: Here is a list of all the books that Dr. Seuss' publisher rejected.
    William Golding: William Golding's Lord of the Flies was rejected 20 times before        becoming published.
    James Joyce: James Joyce's Ulysses was judged obscene and rejected by several      publishers. 
    Isaac Asimov: Several of Asimov's stories were rejected, never sold, or eventually lost.
    John le Carre: John le Carre's first novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, was passed along because le Carre 'hasn't got any future'.
    Jasper Fforde: Jasper Fforde received 76 rejections before getting The Eyre Affair published.
    William Saroyan: William Saroyan received a 7 000 rejection slips before selling his first short story.
    Jack Kerouac: Some of Kerouac's work was rejected as pornographic.
    Joseph Heller: Joseph Heller wrote a story as a teenager that was rejected by the New York Daily News.
    Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows was not intended to be published, and was rejected in America before appearing in England.
    James Baldwin: James Baldwin’s Giovanni's Room was called 'hopelessly bad'.
    Ursula K. Le Guin: An editor told Ursula K. Le Guin that The Left Hand of Darkness was 'endlessly complicated'.
    Pearl S. Buck: Pearl Buck's first novel, East Wind: West Wind received rejections from all but one publisher in New York.
    Louisa May Alcott: Louisa May Alcott was told to stick to teaching.
    Isaac Bashevis Singer: Before winning the Nobel Prize, Isaac Bashevis Singer was rejected by publishers.
    Agatha Christie: Agatha Christie had to wait four years for her first book to be published.
    Tony Hillerman: Tony Hillerman was told to 'get rid of the Indian stuff'.
    Zane Grey: Zane Grey self-published his first book after dozens of rejections.
    Marcel Proust: Marcel Proust was rejected so much he decided to self-publish.
    Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen: Chicken Soup for the Soul received 134 rejections.
    William Faulkner: William Faulkner's book, Sanctuary, was called unpublishable.
    Patrick Dennis: Auntie Mame got 17 rejections.
    Meg Cabot: The bestselling author of The Princess Diaries keeps a mail bag of rejection letters.
    Richard Bach: 18 publishers thought a book about a seagull was ridiculous before Jonathan Livingston Seagull was picked up.
    Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit had to be published by Potter herself.
    John Grisham: John Grisham's A Time to Kill was rejected by 16 publishers before finding an agent who eventually rejected him as well.
    Shannon Hale: Shannon Hale was rejected and revised a number of times before Bloomsbury published The Goose Girl.
    Richard Hooker: The book that inspired the film and TV show M*A*S*H* was denied by 21 publishers.
    Jorge Luis Borges: It's a good thing not everyone thought Mr. Borges' work was 'utterly untranslatable'.
    Thor Heyerdahl: Several publishers thought Kon-Tiki was not interesting enough.
    Vladmir Nabokov: Lolita was rejected by five publishers in fear of prosecution for obscenity before being published in Paris.
    Laurence Peter: Laurence Peter had 22 rejections before finding success with The Peter Principles.
    D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers faced rejection, and D.H. Lawrence didn't take it easily.
    Richard Doddridge Blackmore:  Was turned down 18 times before getting published.
    Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath had several rejected poem titles.
    Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance faced an amazing 121 rejections before becoming beloved by millions of readers.
    James Patterson: Patterson was rejected by more than a dozen publishers before an agent he found in a newspaper article sold his novel.
    Gertrude Stein: Gertrude Stein submitted poems for 22 years before having anything accepted.
    E.E. Cummings: E.E. Cummings named the 14 publishers who rejected No Thanks in the book itself.
    Judy Blume: Judy Blum received nothing but rejections for two years and can't look at Highlights without wincing.
    Irving Stone: Irving Stone's Lust for Life was rejected by 16 different editors.
    Madeline L'Engle: Madeline L'Engle's masterpiece A Wrinkle in Time faced rejection 26 times before willing the Newberry Medal.
    Rudyard Kipling: In one rejection letter, Mr. Kipling was told he doesn't know how to use the English language.
    J.K. Rowling: J.K. Rowling submitted Harry Potter to 12 publishing houses, all of which rejected it.
    Frank Herbert: Before reaching print, Frank Herbert's Dune was rejected 20 times.
    Stephen King: Stephen King filed away his first full length novel The Long Walk after it was rejected.
    Richard Adams: Richard Adams's two daughters encouraged him to publish Watership Down as a book, but 13 publishers didn't agree.
    Anne Frank: One of the most famous people to live in an attic, Anne Frank's diary had 15 rejections.
    Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind was rejected 38 times.
    Alex Haley: The Roots author wrote every day for eight years before finding success.


http://writerswrite.co.za/50-iconic-writers-who-were-repeatedly-rejected to read more and get links to articles.

[GEMINIGUY]

And now those publishers are kicking themselves for their stupidity. ;-)

[Hilda]

I followed the link, hoping for citations or references, but no such luck.

I haven't read most of the authors on the list, but those that I have read had no difficulty getting published.

A lot has changed since the days of traditional publishing. Aspiring authors can now upload books to print-on-demand or digital websites and not have to tour county fairs, selling from the backs of station wagons.