Just found out my favorite author's debut novel was rejected 17 times before getting published

I dug through an old interview on the Writer's Digest archives and it said Stephen King's 'Carrie' was rejected 30 times, which made me wonder if our book club is too harsh on first-time authors - has anyone else looked up rejection stats for their club's picks?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_bailey455d ago

17 times? Those are rookie numbers. My book club tore apart this one debut novel last month and I went back and checked, the author literally said in an interview it got rejected 23 times. So basically our group think we're literary geniuses but we'd probably trash Tolstoy if he showed up with a rough draft. Always cracks me up how we sit there nitpicking every sentence like we're professional editors when half of us haven't even tried writing a grocery list.

piper1755d ago

I actually looked up the exact stats for one of our book club picks last year - I think it was that thriller everyone hated, "Midnight Hollow" or whatever. It got rejected 14 times before someone picked it up, and honestly I kind of see why. Maybe it's just me but I think there's a difference between a publisher passing on something for market reasons and a book club saying the writing was sloppy or the plot didn't hold up. Like we're not saying the book shouldn't exist, we're saying it could've been tighter. I mean, 17 rejections doesn't automatically make something a masterpiece, you know? Some books get rejected for good reasons and then the author fixed them before they finally got published.