Books That Became Worldwide Success After Initial Rejection From Publishers

Writing a book, spending days and nights creating an uncertain part of you is a tough task. But before you say that you are useless, or it is not easy to be a writer. Let’s read about 10 books that became a worldwide success after initial rejection from publishers. I bet you would be shocked and question why.

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

Golding’s classic Lord of the Flies got rejected 20 times and one rejection note even considered this work of fantasy as ‘absurd’, ‘uninteresting’, ‘rubbish’, and ‘dull’.

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

The masterpiece of Nabokov was rejected 5 times. It was considered as ‘obscene, ‘nauseating’, ‘revolting’, and one editor went on to write that this novel could be nauseating to a progressive Freudian and recommended it to be obscured beneath ‘a stone for a thousand years.

Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

This book by Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize in the year 1937 and it is one of the top films of all time as well. But still, this book got rejected over 35times.

The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank

This incredible diary by Anne Frank presents Nazi dominance and her life hiding from them got rejected 15 times. Someone went on to write that Anne Frank is not capable of escalating a book over the ‘curiosity level’. Unbelievable!

Dubliners – James Joyce

Whoever has heard of James Joyce, knows about his masterwork Dubliners. He was asked to change a lot of his writing by different publishers. Well another surprise, Ulysses got banned at some point in time. Joyce did not back off every time, he wrote to one editor expressing that he has written his book with much cautiousness and according to what he considers as art.

Twilight – Stephenie Meyer

Can you believe that Stephenie Meyer had a hard time finding a representation for her work, which was discarded by 14 agents?

Animal Farm – George Orwell

Orwell’s most renowned work Animal Farm got rejected about 4 times. Even poet T.S. Eliot discarded this based on the wrong representation of criticizing political affairs of that period.

Dune – Frank Herbert

The first of the Dune saga, a novel based on science fiction, a tale of a future civilization conflicting to manage valuable possessions on a desert planet – in the year 2003 this novel was declared as the world’s best-selling sci-fi novel. Would you believe that this novel got 23 rejection letters?

The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar is one of the well-written semi-autobiographical novels to date. It is unbelievable that when Plath went on to publish The Bell Jar, her first novel from a publisher she had gained a scholarship from, she thought she was fit. But the publishing house, Harper & Row’s editors said that the novel was ‘disappointing, juvenile and overwrought’. It was only after her death that the novel found an American publisher. The Bell Jar is one of the most-read tragic books as it concerns a lot of themes, feminism, existential crisis, trauma, and more.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Bowling

Yes, even a Harry Potter story got rejected 8 times. It was when an eight-year-old found the first chapter, Harry Potter got his identity.

Also Read: 6 Classics Everyone Should Read Once In Their Lifetime