Thing #7B

That old saying "If at first you don't succeed, try and try again" was a very rewarding motto for some authors who went on to be multimillion dollar best sellers. One of the articles I read while browsing my Google Reader was 14 Best-Selling Books Repeatedly Rejected by Publishers by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

Some of the authors and titles on this list were surprising to me, and I thought it was admirable that many of these authors persevered and continued to submit their novels despite repeated rejections. Below is the list that the article describes.

1. Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
2. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
3. Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
4. Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
5. The Peter Principle by Laurence Peter
6. Dubliners by James Joyce
7. Lorna Doone by Richard Doddridge Blackmore
8. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
9. M*A*S*H by Richard Hooker
10. Carrie by Stephen King
11. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
12. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
13. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison by Charles Shaw
14. Dune by Frank Herbert

The article gives more information about how many times the books were rejected and many of them transitioned to the Hollywood scene as well. Let this be encouragement for all of you fledgling authors out there who are trying to get a novel published - keep trying :)