Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/7-novels-that-were-rejected-by-multiple-publishers-before-becoming-best-sellers/
Publishing has always involved a lot of educated guessing, and editors get it wrong more often than they’d like to admit. Some of the most widely read books of the past century spent months or years collecting polite refusals first.
The rejection counts below come from author interviews, publisher histories and long repeated accounts. Exact numbers sometimes vary between sources, so treat them as approximate. Here are seven novels that found their audience after a rough start.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Rowling’s first Harry Potter manuscript was reportedly turned down by about twelve publishers before Bloomsbury took a chance on it. The offer came with a modest advance of around two thousand five hundred pounds. Children’s books were not seen as big money then, and a long fantasy about a boy wizard didn’t look like an obvious exception.
Bloomsbury’s chairman has said that his young daughter read the opening chapter and demanded the rest, which helped push the decision. The book came out in 1997 in the UK. The series has since sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide and has been translated into dozens of languages.
Carrie by Stephen King
King has said he got around thirty rejections for early work, and Carrie nearly ended up in the bin. He grew frustrated with the story and threw…
—-
Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-10-29 08:13:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
—-
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8