Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Rejected Authors in Kidlit

Last week, I wrote about an author for adult lit who received sixty rejections before she got published. I thought it'd only be fair to discuss some kidlit authors who received their share of NO NO and NO before they went on to get published and lead very successful writing careers. Keep in mind ALL writers experience rejection and here are just a few of them:

Judy Blume received rejections for two straight years.

Madeline L’Engle's Newbery Award-winning A WRINKLE IN TIME was passed over for two years before it was published.

J.K. Rowling's HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE was turned down many many times before it was published.

Beatrix Potter self-published THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT after receiving some rejections. The book did so well that a publisher eventually took on publishing the Peter Rabbit books.

Stephen King's first novel CARRIE was rejected many times. One publisher wrote to him, "We are not interested in science fiction with negative utopias. They do not sell." (Okay, so Stephen King isn't really a kidlit author but I often see CARRIE in the YA section of the library.)

4 comments:

Jennifer R. Hubbard said...

Dr. Seuss was also famously rejected dozens of times before finding a publisher--and we all know how that turned out!

Cynthia said...

Jennifer, YES, Dr. Seuss! THE SNEETCHES is one of my favorite stories by Dr. Seuss, and though it was written years ago, its message is still relevant today.

Anonymous said...

The power of perseverance! :)

Cynthia said...

Absolutely, Debbi!

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