Feeling Rejected?

This blog was originally posted in 2014 by blogger Kara Cerise formerly of WWK. Its wisdom prompted me to post it for today's blog.                                                              E. B. Davis 

Have you received a not so nice rejection letter? Take heart; you're in good company. Before some authors became famous, and even after, they received rejection letters that were mean, mocking, and nasty. These rejections also were remarkable for their bad judgment and advice. By comparison, it makes the nonspecific "this isn't exactly what we're looking for at the moment" feel like a love letter.

Some jaw-dropping rejections:

Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Torrents of Spring, was rejected with, “It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish it.”

In 1966, Redbook sent a blunt rejection to writer Mary Higgins Clark, “We found the heroine as boring as her husband had.”

“…an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.” An agent to William Golding about Lord of the Flies.

H.G. Wells received a disheartening rejection letter after he submitted The War of the Worlds. “An endless nightmare. I do not believe it would ‘take’…I think the verdict would be ‘Oh don’t read that horrid book’.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was rejected with the advice, “You’d have a decent book if you’d get rid of that Gatsby Character.”

Editor of the San Francisco Examiner to Rudyard Kipling, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.”

“Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.” A rejection letter sent to Dr. Seuss for his book, And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street.

When Louisa May Alcott tried to get Little Women published she was advised, “Stick to teaching.”

“…overwhelmingly nauseating…I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.” Rejection of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.

One publishing house rejected Stephen King’s novel, Carrie, because they were “not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.”

“(Your poems) are quite remarkable for defects as for beauties and are generally devoid of true poetical qualities.” Rejection to poet Emily Dickinson.

Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected by one publisher who thought it was “too nicey-nice” and “nobody wants to read a book of short little stories.”

“...she is a painfully dull, inept, clumsy, undisciplined, rambling and thoroughly amateurish writer whose every sentence, paragraph and scene cries for the hand of a pro.” Excerpt from a rejection letter for Jacqueline Susann’s book, Valley of the Dolls.

A publisher rejected Tony Hillerman’s first Navajo detective novel and suggested that he “get rid of all the Indian stuff.”

“You have no business being a writer and should give up.” Rejection letter to Zane Grey who is believed to have over 250 million books in print.

“The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the ‘curiosity’ level.” Letter from one of fifteen publishers who rejected The Diary of Anne Frank.

“He hasn’t got any future.” A letter from a publisher to his colleague regarding John le Carré who wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Animal Farm by George Orwell was rejected by Alfred Knopf because it was “impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.”

I don’t know about you, but reading these rejections made me mad. What if the authors had believed the negative (and just plain wrong) messages and given up on a story or career? We all would have lost out on some great literature. So, if you’re feeling the sting of rejection, chin up, grab a piece of chocolate for courage, and get back to work. These writers somehow continued to write after being rejected and you can too!

To read more author rejection letters go to: Literary Rejections, Mental Floss, Telegraph, and The Best Colleges.