Dr. Seuss got rejection letters, too. Here is one:
"too different
from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling."
Here's a rejection letter for THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK:
"The
girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level."
Madeleine L"Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME was turned down 29 times.
And THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT was turned down so many times, Beatrix
Potter initially self-published it.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the
English language." Editor of the San Francisco Examiner to Rudyard Kipling.
Mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark recently received a $60 plus
million dollar advance on her next five books, but this is what happened when she was sending out her manuscript "Journey
Back to Love" in the early 1960s: "We found the heroine as boring as her husband did."
Classic writer Colette was told in a letter of rejection: "I wouldn't
be able to sell 10 copies."
A rejection letter to Pierre Boulle about his "Bridge Over River
Kwai" said, "A very bad book."
Jean Auel, author of "The Clan of Cave Bear" was told, "We are
very impressed with the depth and scope of your research and the quality of your prose. Nevertheless ... we don't think we
could distribute enough copies to satisfy you or ourselves."
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull will never make it as a paperback."
From the publisher of a magazine refusing an offer to bid on the paperback rights to Richard Bach's best selling novel. Avon
Books eventually bought those rights and sales totaled more than 7.25 million copies.
H.G. Wells had to endure the indignity of a rejection when he submitted
his manuscript, "The War of the Worlds" that said, "An endless nightmare. I do not believe it would "take"...I think the verdict
would be 'Oh don't read that horrid book'."
And when he tried to market "The Time Machine," it was said, "It
is not interesting enough for the general reader and not thorough enough for the scientific reader."
Jacqueline Susann's "Valley of the Dolls" received this response,
"...she is a painfully dull, inept, clumsy, undisciplined, rambling and thoroughly amateurish writer whose every sentence,
paragraph and scene cries for the hand of a pro. She wastes endless pages on utter trivia, writes wide-eyed romantic scenes
...hauls out every terrible show biz cliché in all the books, lets every good scene fall apart in endless talk and allows
her book to ramble aimlessly ..."
When Irving Stone sent his manuscript, "Lust for Life," this is
what came back in the mail: "A long, dull novel about an artist." I guess that meant "No thanks."
Before Ayn Rand became known as an intellectual and her books as
classics, she had to get past this from one publisher: "It is badly written and the hero is unsympathetic." And this from
another: "I wish there were an audience for a book of this kind. But there isn't. It won't sell." So much for "The Fountainhead."
Fourteen years later she was sending "Atlas Shrugged" on its publishing rounds and reading in the return mail: "... the book
is much too long. There are too many long speeches... I regret to say that the book is unsaleable and unpublishable."
To writer Samuel Johnson (though I don't know which book the editor
was referring to): "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that
is original is not good."
Regarding "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" it was written "(this
book has) no future ..."
Did you know that only seven of Emily Dickinson's poems were ever
published during her lifetime? A rejection early in her career said, "(Your poems) are quite as remarkable for defects as
for beauties and are generally devoid of true poetical qualities."
Edgar Allen Poe was told, "Readers in this country have a decided
and strong preference for works in which a single and connected story occupies the entire volume."
Herman Melville, who had written a manuscript entitled "Moby Dick,"
was told, "We regret to say that our united opinion is entirely against the book as we do not think it would be at all suitable
for the Juvenile Market in (England). It is very long, rather old-fashioned..."
Jack London heard, "(Your book is) forbidding and depressing."
Ernest Hemingway, regarding his novel, "The Torrents of Spring"
was rejected with, "It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish
it." Ouch!
William Faulkner may be a classic writer to this, as well as prior,
generation, but back when he was trying to crack the publishing market, he had to read letters like this one, "If the book
had a plot and structure, we might suggest shortening and revisions, but it is so diffuse that I don't think this would be
of any use. My chief objection is that you don't have any story to tell." This was kinder than the rejection he would receive
just two years later, "Good God, I can't publish this!"
According to the terrific little book, "Rotten Rejections" (Pushcart
Press, Andre Bernarnd, 1990), "Auntie Mame" went through fifteen rejections over a period of five years before finding a home
at Vanguard Press.
Crash by J G Ballard
‘The author of this book is beyond psychiatric help.'
The Deer Park by Norman Mailer
'This will set publishing back 25 years.'
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
'Do you realize, young woman, that you're the first American writer
ever to poke fun at sex.'
Lust for Life by Irving Stone
(which was rejected 16 times, but found a publisher and went on
to sell about 25 million copies)
‘ A long, dull novel about an artist.’
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
'The grand defect of the work, I think, as a work of art is the
low-mindedness and vulgarity of the chief actors. There is hardly a lady" or "gentleman" amongst them.'
Carrie by Stephen King
'We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative
utopias. They do not sell.'
Catch – 22 by Joseph Heller
‘I haven’t really 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 … From your long publishing experience you will know that it is less disastrous
to turn down a work of genius than to turn down talented mediocrities.’
The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
‘You’re welcome to le Carré – he hasn’t
got any future.’
Animal Farm by George Orwell
‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA’
Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde
‘My dear sir,
I have read your manuscript. Oh, my dear sir.’
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
‘... 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.’
