Nobody likes to be rejected.
But here are some best-selling authors who were rejected many times before they became successful like Beatrix Potter who wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
It was rejected so many times she decided to self-publish 250 copies, according to Literary Rejections.
Peter Rabbit has sold 45 million books.
“Nobody will want to read a book about a seagull.” But Richard Bach‘s Jonathan Livingston Seagull goes on to sell 44 million copies.
Here are other best-selling authors who were also rejected, according to Literary Rejections.
- Louis L’Amour received 200 rejections before Bantam took a chance on him. He is now their best ever selling author with 330 million sales
- “Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.” A rejection letter sent to Dr Seuss. 300 million sales and the 9th best-selling fiction author of all time.
- “You have no business being a writer and should give up.” Zane Grey ignores the advice. There are believed to be over 250 million copies of his books in print.
- 140 rejections stating “Anthologies don’t sell” until the Chicken Soup for the Soul series by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen sells 125 million copies
- The years of rejection do not break his spirit. He only becomes more determined to succeed. When he eventually lands a publishing deal, such is the demand for his fiction that it is translated into over 47 languages, as The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis goes on to sell over 100 million copies.
- “It is so badly written.” The author tries Doubleday instead and his little book makes an impression. The Da Vinci Code sells 80 million.