Bestsellers that almost didn't make it to the bookstores
Dagmar Breitenbach
January 4, 2018
They have very different styles, but Stephen King and Beatrix Potter have something in common: They're both authors whose books were initially rejected by publishers — and went on to become bestsellers. Here are more.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Wallace
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International bestsellers initially rejected by publishers
Publishers have often erred when rejecting manuscripts... One of them even advised J.K. Rowling not to quit her day job. But many of those books have gone on to become mega bestsellers and classics of world literature.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K.D.Gabbert
'Harry Potter'
British author J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter manuscript was famously turned down by about a dozen publishers before her literary agent placed her first book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," with a small British publishing house in 1997. The books have since sold hundreds of millions of copies and have been translated into dozens of languages.
Image: Getty Images/C. Furlong
'Moby Dick'
Publishers told Herman Melville that his book about whaling was too long, and asked if it couldn't include "voluptuous maidens" instead of a whale... Finally published in 1851, the story of Captain Ahab's quest for the white whale was not a commercial success during the author's lifetime but is today listed as a Great American Novel. It's opening line is one of the most famous: "Call me Ishmael."
Image: picture alliance/Everett Collection
'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'
This Cold War classic and international bestseller by British author John le Carré was initially rejected because the reviewer felt the writer had "no future." The spy novel was eventually published in 1963, won the Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel that year, and two years later, it was adapted into a film starring Richard Burton (picture).
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'Carrie'
"Carrie," the story of a girl with telekinetic powers, was rejected 30 times before it was published in 1974. It became the first novel published by writer and high school teacher Stephen King. The paperback sold more than a million copies that first year. "Carrie" has since been adapted into films and a Broadway musical. King went on to become a best-selling author of horror stories.
Image: picture alliance/Everett Collection
'The Tale of Peter Rabbit'
Several publishers returned the manuscript of Beatrix Potter's lovingly illustrated children's book about a mischievous little rabbit named Peter. In 1902, the British writer decided to self-publish the tale instead. The book has sold around 45 million copies, has been translated into dozens of languages — and is still a nursery classic to this day.
Image: Warne Verlag
'Lord of the Flies'
William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" was turned down 20 times — with one publisher calling it "an absurd and uninteresting fantasy" — before it was published in 1954. The dystopian story about a group of school boys struggling to survive on an uninhabited island is now required reading in different high schools all over the world, and has been adapted for the screen more than once.
Image: picture alliance/Everett Collection
'Lolita'
Turned down many times, Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov also had a hard time finding a publisher for "Lolita." One reviewer recommended that "it be buried under a stone for a thousand years." The novel about an older professor obsessed with a young girl was finally published in France in 1955, and three years later in the US. There are now several film and stage adaptations of the work.
Image: Penguin
'Gone with the Wind'
The Civil War saga "Gone With the Wind" won author Margaret Mitchell a Pulitzer Prize in 1937, a year after it was finally printed. Before that, publishers had turned down the epic novel of more than 1,000 pages 38 times. The movie starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh was filmed two years later. It won eight Academy Awards. It remains one of the highest-grossing films in Hollywood ever.
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About 20 years ago, quite a few publishers turned down an unknown British writer's story about a young wizard and his adventures at a school of witchcraft. That may be one the more glaring recent errors of judgement in the publishing world, but it isn't the only one by far.
The list of rejected manuscripts that went on to become best-selling books is long, and full of surprises.
Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" was turned down by English-language publishers, but saved from the rejection pile by an editor with Doubleday, where the book was published in in 1952 — and became not only a bestseller, but also one of the most enduring documents of the 20th century.
"The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling was also turned down, with one publisher reportedly remarking Kipling didn't now how to use English. What a loss that would have been: The 1967 Disney animated film version is beloved by children all over the world to this day.
Other literary works that almost didn't make the cut include "Dubliners," a collection of short stories by James Joyce, and "The Kon-Tiki Expedition by Raft Across the South Seas," the story of a raft expedition by Thor Heyerdahl. Once the travel memoirs were published in 1948, the first run sold out in 15 days. It later became an international hit.
The gallery above features more international bestsellers that initially faced rejection.
